


The City Beneath a Shattered Skyline

by Tangerine_Catnip



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Attempted Sexual Assault, Consent Issues, F/M, Implied/Referenced Abuse, M/M, Mind Control, Minor Character Death, Multi, Psychological Horror, Recreational Drug Use, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Transhumanism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-03-29 04:11:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 35,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13919115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tangerine_Catnip/pseuds/Tangerine_Catnip
Summary: The twins were born in this city, a place where glass skyscrapers frame the horizon and the neon lights drown out the stars. Here a billion nameless souls teeter on the edge of a crumbling ideology, while the oligarchs fight tooth and nail for every scrap of wealth and power.After barely surviving the worst day of his life, Taako finds himself desperate and alone, running from his own mistakes and an unknown enemy. It’s said that in your greatest hour of need you’ll find who you’re meant to rely on; however, trusting new and unexpected allies proves difficult when a powerful organization follows your every step, the unexplained disappearance of your sister haunts you, and all debts must, inevitably, be repaid. (it’s a cyberpunk AU)





	1. Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble

The bouquet of flowers was so voluptuous that it had nearly been too big to squeeze through the door of Taako's dressing room. While the master chef wouldn't have chosen a mix of orange and white roses if he'd been asked, the sheer volume if the arrangement made up for the clashing colours.

Taako traced his finger over the stem of one of the white roses on the bottom. It had been crushed against the rim of the crystal vase, but its thorns were still intact.

In the background, a voice spoke in tones so familiar that the words blended together, sounding more like music than common. Occasionally a word or two stood out, adaptive algorithm, deep leaning, neural network, multiagent systems, which Taako filed away in a mental folder entitled 'computer things Lulu enjoys'.

Taako traced his fingertips from the stem to the smooth white petals. It was a shame roses weren't edible, they would have made an attractive garnish. He could put them on the side... or maybe make his own roses from something else? Cakes had roses made of icing, but the likeness was poor to the point of caricature, and the sugar would spoil savoury dishes. Maybe if he used rice paper?

"Taako, are you even listening?"

Taako's gaze flicked from the rose to the woman standing over him, her hands resting on her hips.

"Hmmh?... Of course, I am, sweetie," Taako replied, returning the stink eye his sister was giving him with a lopsided smile.

"Yeah? then what did I just say?"

Taako shrugged. "You asked if I was listening, listening and comprehending are two different things."

Lup narrowed her eyes at him, and Taako laughed.

"Lulu, I love you, and don't get me wrong, it's really cute when you go off on a tangent like that, but I have absolutely no fucking idea what you're talking about like 90% of the time."

Lup sighed, though she didn't sound all that disappointed or surprised.

"You're going under the knife next week, and you're not even a  _little_  curious about what's going to be shoved into your body?"

Taako frowned, pretending to think about it for a minute before replying, "No, not really. I mean, you already know everything about augmentation, and if you know something, it's basically as good as if I knew it. You're like an off-sight data backup for anything that doesn't fit in my pretty little head."

Lup crossed her arms over her chest but instead of saying what was on her mind, she tilted her head towards the flowers and asked; "Who are those from?"

Taako sat back in his chair to get a better look at the whole arrangement. "You know, I'm not really sure. The card was blank, but it's probably from the producer. It's standard to give a 'thank you' to a guest star. Especially when they bring as much to the table as I do."

Taako untied the small bit of black ribbon around the neck of the vase and passed the gift tag to his sister. The inside read in perfectly immaculate handwriting; 'To: Taako the Magnificent, Master of flavour and spices' and underneath that was the word 'From:' followed by a conspicuously empty space. Lup flipped the card around, her whole body freezing up when she saw the logo printed on the front. A silver sword hanging in the centre of a gold triangle.

Lup grit her teeth, her eyes flicked over to her twin, but Taako had turned his back to her and was intently staring at his own reflection in the mirror.

"I think my eyeliner is a little too thin…" he muttered, reaching for one of ten black pencil applicators and removing the cap.

Lup stared down at the card and took a deep breath, though she didn't feel any calmer for the effort. As the seconds dripped away, Lup's body temperature skyrocketed, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw a faint heat haze rising off her forearm. The card paper in her hand singed against her fingertips, and a second later it caught, vanishing in a flash of bright red fire and leaving her hand covered in ash. Lup grit her teeth hard and forced her eyes closed.

' _Calm the fuck down. Taako is not going to appreciate it if you torch his damn dressing room right before a show.'_

"Hey Lulu,-"

Through the fog of anger, Lup heard her twin say her name, and she snapped back to reality.

"-is there an augmentation that could give me perfect eyeliner every time?"

The corners of Lup's lips tugged upwards. "Sure is, angel face. They're called tattoos."

Taako frowned and turned to look at her, Lup quickly wiped her ash covered hand on her dark red cloak and met his eyes.

"Well, yeah, but then I could never change it. What if I needed to guest star in a culturally appropriative, Egyptian-themed, music video?"

Lup's forced smile relaxed into a more natural smirk. "This time next week you're going to be able to Manipulate the very fabric of reality with your mind. I'm sure you can figure out a better way to do your eyeliner from there."

Taako leaned in close to the mirror again and put the finishing touches on the curved wings branching off from the corners of his eyes.

"Hell yeah!"

Taako returned the pencil to its brethren and added, "One of the chefs I'm squaring off against today has augmentations that turn his fingers into knives. He thinks he's such hot shit just because he can cut a little faster, but he's going to feel really dumb when I turn fucking water into whine then use that wine to make a killer oyster sauce."

Lup narrowed her eyes at her brother. "Hey, that reminds me. Why are you doing this show? You should be saving you strength for operation day."

Taako let out a bark of laughter. "You're kidding, right? This is  **THE**  Truesteel chef challenge. Hundreds of Millions of people watch this show religiously. It's a cultural culinary in-sti-tuition." He sounded out the last word for the extra emphasis. "-And Once they get a taste of Taako, well… let's just say my social media trend lines are going to look more like a cliff than a mountain."

Taako plucked a rose from the arrangement and tucked it behind his ear. "Does this look too elfy? it looks too elfy doesn't it?"

Before Lup could reply, the door to Taako's dressing room opened and a human wearing a branded Truesteel chef t-shirt and a headset microphone popped her head into the room.

"Taako, we need you on stage in ten."

She closed the door without waiting for a reply, leaving the twins alone.

"Guess that's my cue to piss off…" Lup said, tugging up the hood of her robe.

"Wait, Lulu," Taako called, standing up from his chair and brandishing yet another makeup pencil. "Let me do your eyes."

"Ten minutes before your show?"

"Psh, I always have time for you."

Lup rolled her eyes at him and came over to sit in the very recently vacated chair. She held still as Taako applied a combination of brushes and applicators to her face. He was explaining what he was doing, but Lup let the context fall away, the calming sound of her brother's voice setting the background track for her own swirling thoughts.

' _I'll keep you safe, no matter what it takes. I won't let him lay a single finger on you.'_

"-and there!"

Taako rested his hands on Lup's shoulders, leaning down to get a better look at her face in the mirror.

Lup blinked at her reflection. Her pale amber eyes looked more prominent now that they were set against black lines and glittery silver eyeshadow. Her pupils widened, tiny slats made of ultra-thin metal shifted back like the shutter on a camera opening. The colour of her irises darkened into a bright blood red. The reaction was involuntary, corresponding to her emotions.

Taako shivered. "You look absolutely ferocious, like you could kill someone if you wanted to."

Lup grit her teeth behind her grin and took another long look at herself before standing up.

"Yeah? you better watch your ass then, huh?" Lup said, giving her brother a playful poke in the side.

"Pfft, as if. You know you'd never be able to live without me, or vice versa."

Lup nodded her agreement and paused to kiss her twin on the cheek on the way out.

"Break a leg out there, and an arm, and your neck while you're at it," Lup called over her shoulder as she collected her umbrella and stepped out the door.

* * *

 

It took hours for the lab to empty out. Quitting time came and went and only about half of the staff, mostly the assistants and unpaid interns, bothered to leave.

Some were on the way out, finishing up experiments or cleaning up their workstations, but a few others were settling in for the night just like Lup was. It wasn't really that surprising since people with healthy work-life balances weren't employed as cybernetics researchers at Necron industries, but Lup was annoyed all the same.

She stayed planted in her workstation, her fingers moving like liquid over her keyboard. It was all for show, of course, if Lup wanted to type something she'd just hook her brain up to a word processor, but she needed to look busy while she worked over her plan in her head.

None of her co-workers seemed to be appreciating her efforts. They had given Lup a wide birth after word had gotten around about Barry's accident, to the point that every room she walked into suddenly became the quietest place in the laboratory. Lup didn't really blame them for not knowing what to say to her, had what they thought happened had actually happened, nothing they could say or do would've been sufficient.

Lup glanced around the office. There were only two others left, Kensington and Troy, and they both seemed to be elbow deep in their experiments. Lup's gibberish typing sped up, her fingers slammed down on the keys hard enough to make Troy glance up in her direction. Lup slunk down behind her monitor and took a deep breath.

Lup had reached the point where she wasn't so much planning as freaking out, she knew what she had to do, and the fact she still had to wait was killing her.

Lup opened a web browser. She needed something to help keep her mind off all the ways things could go horribly wrong. She clicked on the search box and typed in 'Truesteel chef'. Predictably, the show was produced by Necron Entertainment, to which she got full access as a benefit of employment; lucky her.

Lup settled into the newest episode. The host started off by introducing the four contestants. Taako came out wearing the outfit Lup had last seen him in, a black t-shirt with his show's name and logo emblazed on the front. The right corner of the shirt was tied into a knot, the hem falling diagonally across his tummy. It gave the outfit a touch of asymmetry and showed off Taako's hipbones, which he lovingly referred to as his 'moneymakers' (a comment that Lup responded to by sticking her finger in her mouth and making loud gagging noises). On his lower half, Taako had on a pair of tight black pants, and a white half-apron with the letter T monogrammed on the pocket in gold.

Lup couldn't help but notice how small and gangly Taako looked when compared to the humans he was facing off against. Lucky for him, this was a cooking contest and not a wrestling promotion.

"Our next Chef, Taako, rose to fame on the back of his self-produced web-show, "Sizzle it up With Taako," the show is highly praised for its approachability, and for the unique presentation style of its host-"

Taako strutted down a small ramp leading to the cooking stations like he was on the runway at a Neo-Paris fashion week. Head back, shoulders up, resting bitch face, eyes straight ahead, long strides, consistent rhythm.

Upon reaching the end of the ramp, the other three chefs had pounded their chests and tied to look intimidating, but Taako crossed his arm behind his neck, flipped his long blond hair, and struck a pose.

The audience response was mixed. To Lup, it sounded more like confusion then displeasure. She wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't encountered anyone like her brother before.

"Knock them dead, babe," Lup murmured under her breath. The show had aired hours ago, but Lup couldn't help cheering on her brother.

The four chefs took turns shaking hands then formed a straight line in front of a large podium.

"We'll begin with a challenge, each of you will make a dish featuring the mystery ingredient, and our judges will distribute points under the following categories; ingenuity, presentation, flavour, and complexity."

The camera panned over the faces of the contestants as the host explained. Taako was the only one who looked excited to be there.

"-And the mystery ingredient for this round is…"

A drum roll played over the cheering audience, and the top half of the podium was lifted, revealing a huge pile of small fruit with rough green skin.

"Avocado!"

"Yes!"

Lup flinched as soon as she realised she had shouted that out loud. Kensington and Troy we're staring at her.

Lup pretend she hadn't said anything. The camera turned to Taako, and she saw that he was every bit as delighted as she was. His hands were pressed over his lips, but you could tell from the corners of his mouth that he was grinning from pointy ear to pointy ear.

The other three chefs rushed forward to grab their allotment of the fruit, but Taako stayed put a moment longer.

He slipped a simple black elastic off his wrist, and in two quick motions he'd tied his hair up into a high ponytail, retrieved a large mother-of-pearl hair clip from the pocket if his apron and pinned his locks into a messy updo.

The other chefs were at their stations already, but Taako didn't seem to mind. He grabbed a small arm-full of Avocado, carrying them in the crook of his arm like a newborn.

"Is that your brother?"

Lup was fresh out of fucks to give, so she simply stared back at Kensington. He had his bag over his shoulder, and behind him, Lup could see Troy's empty desk, so it was a safe bet that they were the last two in the lab.

Lup narrowed her eyes at the human, she didn't really want to respond, but she was trying not to be suspicious.

"Yeah, it is."

"That's cool, he must be a really good cook to get on Truesteel chef."

"He is."

Kensington glanced down at his hands and started fidgeting. Lup dug her fingernails into her thigh screaming at him in her head to just fuck off already.

"So, uh… are you doing anything tonight?" Kensington asked.

Lup slammed her hands down on the desk and stood, sending her chair flying backwards. Kensington stumbled away from her, eyes going wide.

Lup turned to him very slowly, her expression unsettlingly neutral.

"I'm going to say this nicely, since I don't think you're a bad guy, Kenzi. You're just a thoughtless dummy with the tact and sensitivity of a fucking porcupine…"

Lup picked up her umbrella and rested the pointy end on her shoulder. "No, I don't want to go on a date. No, it won't make me 'feel better'. No, I won't change my mind and, no, you could never replace him."

Lup hit the power button on her desktop and the screen shut off, leaving the two of them standing in the shadows under the emergency lighting.

Kensington was gaping at her like a caught fish, wearing out the last vestiges of Lup's legendarily thin patience.

"I need to check on something," Lup snapped, rounding her desk and storming off down the hallway towards the wetware labs. She tapped the button on her umbrella, and it dutifully popped open, shielding her from any closing remarks from Kensington.

Later, Lup would wonder if she had been a little too hard on him, after all, he had no idea what she had been going through the past few months. Still, there wasn't much time to worry about some hurt feelings, one way or another.

* * *

 

The fluorescents clicked on automatically as Lup entered the artificial intelligence lab. The room was perfectly square, and each of the four walls had windows in them, allowing protected observation from all sides. In the centre was a machine that stretched from floor to ceiling. The wires providing power to it were numerous, and fanned out in all directions, forming a web of tendrils that met underneath a huge bulbous hood covered in a shimmering rainbow of LED lights. Nestled in the heart of the wires was what looked like a hybrid of an operating table and a throne. It was sculpted to perfectly support a reclining human body, including straps to hold the limbs still while operations where underway.

The name of the machine was printed on its side in stencilled silver letters; 'Void Engine.'

Lup turned to the computer console near to the machine and plugged in her login details. While it was verifying, she pulled out her phone and placed it on the desk next to the monitor.

For the next hour, Lup worked away, keeping one eye on her brother as he prepared ingredients and bantered with the host. Taako was making a Masala Frittata with avocado salsa as the topping. In his place, Lup probably would have made fully loaded nachos, though she could already sense Taako's disagreement based on how hard that would be to present.

Lup loved cooking but hated the politics that surrounded it. Why anything besides taste mattered was beyond her, but if you wanted to make it in that world, you had to play by the rules set by the biggest fish, so to speak.

Lup's monitor flashed up large red text; 'please insert external drive'. Lup paused the show and retrieved her umbrella from where it was propped up against the desk. She pressed the button that opened it, but this time she held it down for a good twenty seconds. There was a soft click, and part of the wooden handle popped out. Lup pinched it between her fingers and pulled. Behind the wooden finish was a single-level cell solid state drive. She inserted the drive into the console and waited as the computer verified its integrity.

The screen flashed green and returned her to the setup process. Lup un-paused the show, they were finally ready to judge.

Lup took her phone and carried it to the machine. The throne was made for humans, not elves, so it took her a moment to find a comfortable way to lay in it.

The judges were approaching Taako's station. He looked calm, but Lup could see that his ears were slicked back, and his jaw was locked. She desperately wanted to slip her hand into his and squeeze it, but this had all happened hours ago.

Lup felt the machine above her began powering up one system at a time, fans roared into life, and a low hum of electricity filled the air.

Each of the judges got a small portion of the frittata and the salsa. They each took a bite, but it was impossible to read into their expressions.

The judges stepped aside to do their deliberations, while the host went around and got a final word with the contestants.

"So Taako, how did it go?"

"Uh... well... pretty okay, I think. I decided to step outside my comfort zone for this one. I mean, I'm sure you're aware that I specialise in tex-mex? It's in the name, right? But I, uh... I kinda pride myself on bringing more to the table than people would expect, and I think this time it really paid off."

The machine was awake now. Lup held still as a large black cylinder lowered around her head. It was pitch dark inside, and she could barely hear her phone over the hum in her ears.

The judges were back on stage, and the host had just asked for the result. There was a long pause as they waited for the drama to reach its peak. Taako had both his hands pressed against his chest. His baby blue eyes (the same colour Lup's had been before her augmentations) were watering from his sheer refusal to blink.

"Chef Taako!"

Taako literally jumped with joy, bringing down both arms for a double fist pump. The crowd erupted into applause, a dramatic change from the lukewarm reception Taako had received at the start of the show.

Lup pressed her phone to her chest. She'd known he could do it. Just as she had told her twin time and time again; they could do anything they put their minds to, and there was nothing and nobody in this rotten city who could stop them.

Especially not  **him**.

He thought he had her cornered. He thought she was alone and desperate. He thought he had broken her.

He was wrong. So fucking wrong.

She would burn him. Him and everything he had built with the bones and blood of innocent people.

A robotic voice in Lup's ear chimed out, "scan initialising in ten…"

Lup was done playing nice.

"Nine."

Sick of having his threats hanging over her head.

"Eight."

She could see it in his eyes when he looked at her.

"Seven."

He thought he owned her.

"Six."

As if she was another object he could buy. As if she only succeeded because he allowed it.

"Five."

She would make him pay for every leer, for every abusive comment, for every day she'd had to wait and bide her time.

"Four."

But first, she needed to make sure the most important person in her life didn't take the fall with her.

"Three."

This was her choice to make, but if the worst should happen, she couldn't leave her brother alone.

"Two."

Lup promised she would never abandon her twin, and she would keep that promise. No matter what it took.

"One."

Protect Taako.

Lup clung to those two words as the world around her faded into a cold, black, endless void.

The hood rose, and Lup jumped out of the machine. The screen on the console read 'Scan complete. Please remove drive'.

She did so, popping the disk out and putting it back into the hidden slot on the handle of her umbrella. Once it clicked into place, she pressed the single button three more times, activating the microcomputer hidden inside.

Lup held her umbrella up to her face with both hands and said, "Umbra, can you hear me?"

There was a long pause. Then a thin computerised voice replied, "Yeah. Coming in loud and clear, chief."

Lup licked her lips. She wasn't quite sure what she should say.

"How… how do you feel? Are you alright?"

There was a long pause. Long enough that Lup wondered if something had malfunctioned.

"I'm fine," the voice replied. "This was always the plan, right?"

Lup nodded her head then remembered that the umbrella didn't have a camera and that Umbra couldn't see her.

"Yup... it sure was..."

Lup took a deep breath. It was too late for regrets. "I... I'm going to turn you off. No point in waiting a whole week inside my umbrella."

"Okay."

Lup moved her finger to the button, and the voice spoke up again.

"Lup?"

"Y-yes?"

"Tell Barry I love him."

Lup swallowed around a growing lump in her throat.

"I will," She promised and added, "Tell Taako that I love him… and that I'm sorry I was... that I am too stubborn to tell him the truth."

"I will," Umbra agreed.

Lup pressed the button and the umbrella powered down, leaving her standing alone in the empty laboratory.

* * *

 

"You're bringing your umbrella?"

Lup stared back at Cassey. The human woman was nice enough, but she really made Lup wish that she could just ask for a different anaesthetist.

"It's my good luck charm," Lup explained, twirling it in her hands. "I found it on the side of the road when Taako and I were living on the streets, and ever since we've been lucky enough to have a roof over our heads and something to eat."

Lup forced a smile and crossed her fingers behind the umbrella.  _'Bullshit. I made this a month ago, and there's ten thousand dollars' worth of stolen industrial-grade technology in here.'_

Lup glanced down at the umbrella again. It looked brand new.

' _Shit.'_

"I've repaired it, but the core is still in there."

Cassey's eyebrows raised. "Uh, sure, but I really can't allow foreign objects in the operating room, it's not sanitary."

Lup chuckled, but the firm expression on Cassey's face didn't change.

"Wait, you're serious?" Lup asked. "Cass, come on. What is this, the stone age? It's not like I'm going to be touching him with my hands."

Cassey shook her head. "Even with the automated operators, we need to maintain a sterile environment…"

"Ugh… then I'll wipe it down or something."

"I'm sorry but-"

Lup didn't let her finish. She took a step towards the anaesthetist and got right up in her face, a scarce inch between their noses, furiously glaring into her eyes.

"Listen closely, Cassey. My twin brother is in the operating theatre right now, and I'm about to perform an operation on him that has an average survival rate of 10%. I know that the genetic modelling came back positive and that I'm a walking proof of concept since we share our DNA, but do you really think I'm not freaking the hell out about this? I don't know if you remember, but Barry died two months ago, and there's a real chance that I'm going to lose the only other person I care about in this whole effed-up word tonight. If what I need to keep me sane is a goddamn chunk of wood and canvas I'm going to bring it with me, and no one is going to stop me, not you, not the CEO, not even the gods them fucking-selves."

Cassy tried to back away, but for every step she took back, Lup stepped forward the exact same distance, never breaking eye contact.

"I won't bring it anywhere near the table, and I swear I will dunk the whole thing in rubbing alcohol, but the umbrella stays with me. Got it?"

Cassey swallowed and nodded slowly. This time when she moved, Lup let her disengage. Without another word, Lup pushed through the doorway and into the clean room.

* * *

 

"You know it's still not too late to change your mind."

Taako looked up at her, his attention diverted away just long enough for Cassey to slide a catheter into a vain in his elbow. Taako winced and pouted at Lup.

"Uh, no thanks. I'm pretty keen on the whole 'god-like power' thing," Taako replied. "Like I said when you first pitched this whole cyber-whatever deal to me; I want in."

Lup nodded. She remembered that conversation well. Scarcely a month after Lup had recovered from the atlas procedure, she'd realised that if power like this existed in the world, there was no choice but to seize it or resign yourself to living under the heels of those who took the risks you didn't.

Lup turned to the console in front of her. The equipment had completed its full body scan and adjusted the procedure to accommodate every minuscule quirk of Taako's biology. Lup was only here to supervise, which was part of why she was being allowed to perform this procedure while not technically possessing a surgeon's license.

It was all laid out before her in a long list. Every single motion of the robotic arms stripped down to bare code. Lup scanned her eyes over it, her pulse skyrocketing as she searched for the one entry she needed.

Cassey was busy monitoring her patient, and the observation galleries above were empty. Lup reached into her pocket, taking out the slim SSD drive with wood finish on one side, and gingerly inserted it into one of the open slots on the console.

The screen flickered once, then stilled. Lup licked her lips and slowly began to type out on the keyboard.

 

> Are you ready?

The screen flickered again, and a single word flashed up in system font.

 

> Yes

Lup let out the breath she had been holding. Over on the operating table, Taako was starting to show signs of fading. His eyes were half closed, and his breath was coming in deep pulls.

Lup came over and took hold of his hands in both of hers.

"I'll see you on the other side, little bro."

Taako frowned. "You're only older by like five minutes…"

Lup caught a flash of movement above her and looked up to see a man settling into a chair in the front row of the observation gallery.

Taako squinted up at him and murmured, "Lulu, who's that?"

Lup didn't reply. She should have known he would come to watch. Good businessmen always kept an eye on their investments.

Lup squeezed Taako's hand again, but he didn't squeeze back. The anaesthetic had finally taken hold, and he was fast asleep.

* * *

 

Taako gently tossed the apple in the air. It went straight up, then back down. The second it touched the centre of his palm it changed, and suddenly Taako was holding a ripe orange. He repeated the motion, but this time the orange became a lemon, and then a grapefruit. Each time the size of the object was unchanged, but the physical properties and the taste were radically different.

Taako stood on a large stage, surrounded by brand new cooking equipment and an ocean of counter space. Even with Taako's vast imagination, he couldn't think of a single thing he could buy that would improve his set up.

Just two months ago Taako had been running this show out of his apartment, with nothing but a webcam and his stunning good looks, and now he had his own studio and his own live audience.

It was hard to know exactly what had done it, his underdog victory on Truesteel chef, or his rapidly growing mastery of transmutation, but the fresh black ink on his contract with Necron Entertainment spoke for itself.

Taako had been afraid to admit it, since something could still go wrong, but alone in the quiet lull before the final episode of the first nationally broadcast season of "Sizzle It Up with Taako" he could finally say he had made it.

He had really made it.

An idle fantasy had become a dream, then that dream became an aspiration, then finally, a reality.

Each time he took a step closer there'd been doubt. He'd convinced himself time and time again that this was as good as it was ever going to get. That he was only talented enough to make basic meals, that his web show would only ever attract a niche audience, or that he simply didn't have the stage presence he needed.

The only one who had believed in him from start to finish was Lup. From the moment he had confessed his dream to her she had treated it like an inevitability, birds flew, water was wet, and Taako was going to be famous someday.

She had propped him up every single time he faltered, and in the end, she had given him an edge that he could use to carve a path right to the top.

Taako looked down at the unusually large kumquat in his hand.

God, he missed her.

Lup's work was very important to her, and Taako really wasn't in any place to complain now he'd reaped the benefits of her expertise in cybernetics… but he hadn't seen hide nor hair of his twin since waking up after his surgery, even though they lived in the same apartment.

Taako had been out a lot as well, either filming his show or preparing for it, but it was still strange that they never seemed to run into one another. If she wasn't still texting him regularly, Taako might have started worrying about her.

He'd invited her to the wrap party after tonight's broadcast and last time he checked his phone she hadn't said no, but that wasn't really a guarantee of anything. The building Lup worked in had a Faraday cage built into its foundations, preventing cell phone signals from travelling in or out, so he wouldn't get an update till she left.

If she did come, the first thing Taako would do is wrap his arms around her then pull her down for the biggest noogie she had ever had in her entire-

"Taako?"

Taako looked up to find his personal assistant/secretary/bodyguard/producer/roadie/social media liaison/publicist/location manager/set designer/runner/technical director/ production assistant/stunt coordinator standing on the stairs leading up to the stage, a phone clutched in his trembling hand.

"Sazed? What's wrong?" Taako asked. It was unusual to see Sazed that flustered, after all, this was a man who could balance 13 separate jobs.

Sazed didn't say anything, he just passed his phone to Taako.

Taako looked down at the screen, the device was streaming a news broadcast. Apparently one of the buildings downtown had caught on fire and-

Taako felt his heart stop beating.

The Necron cybernetic research labs. He hadn't recognised them since all that was left was a gently smoldering pile of ashes.

"There was an explosion," Sazed explained. "They tried to put the fire out, but by the time the trucks got there…"

Taako didn't hear the rest. It all turned to static roaring in his ears.

He dropped to his knees still clutching Sazed's phone.

Lup.

No, this wasn't real. This was a nightmare. He just needed to focus and wake himself up. Taako brought his fist down on his thigh, once, then twice. He felt the sting of pain, but the world around him was as solid as before.

No. no, no, no, no, no!

She wasn't in the building. She left early so she could watch his show live, or she was out grabbing dinner at that café she liked down the street.

Lup wouldn't die like that, she couldn't die like that. She was made of fire! Fire was her whole thing!

But even as Taako thought that, a traitorous voice in the back of his mind whispered;  _'It's not the fire that kills you, It's the smoke.'_

Something sharp was sticking into Taako's fingers. He glanced down to see that he was now holding a phone shaped chunk of pink crystal covered in razor-sharp spikes.

"I-I'm going to go tell the crew that we need to cancel the show…" Sazed stammered, turning to go.

"No!" Taako barked, forcing himself back onto his feet.

"People are waiting outside and they paid good money for tickets. I'm not sending them away."

"But… But?"

"Lup is fine. She wasn't in the building."

"Oh?! She sent you a message?"

Taako shook his head, "If something had happened to her I would know. We're twins, we can sense things."

If Lup were gone, the world would be ending, and it all still seemed to be here.

Sazed just stood there shifting from foot to foot. Taako could see the pity in his eyes, and it made him want to vomit all over his assistant's gaudy running shoes.

"Go open the doors," Taako ordered, thrusting the chunk of pink crystal back into Sazed's hands.

Finally, the idiot seemed to get the message and hurried off. Taako returned to his countertop and the two dozen glass bowls that contained the pre-measured ingredients for his Thirty Garlic Clove Chicken.

Taako pulled his hair back and tied it up in a ponytail, but his hands were trembling so hard that he missed almost half of it.

Blond bangs dangled in front of Taako's eyes as he considered the ingredients.

This recipe wasn't good enough for a season finale. It was tasty, sure, but it was also incredibly safe. Anyone with two taste buds to rub together could tell you that chicken and garlic went together.

It needed something extra, something unexpected.

Lup was better at this than he was, she could always come up with something he wouldn't have considered.

…

Taako picked up the bowl full of parsley he was planning to use as a garnish. This was the easiest thing to swap out… maybe something fruity to contrast the garlic, but not too sweet, maybe a little bitter…

Taako dipped his fingers into the bowl, and the leafy-green springs of parsley shifted into a bundle of small black berries.

There. Much better.

The audience was starting to trickle in, so Taako ducked into the backstage area.

* * *

 

Over the next three months, Taako would try again and again to remember the exact details of what happened in the next hour, but the truth was that he'd simply been sleepwalking through the preparation of his dish.

Every moment that slipped away the confirmed casualty list from the fire got longer and longer. The explosion had cut off the emergency escape routes, so everyone who hadn't been blown to bits had gotten trapped inside.

Each commercial brake Taako would go backstage to check his phone, but the message he was waiting for never came.

By the time he was plating the dish, Taako was holding himself together with a single strand of thread.

Taako dipped his hand into the bowl full of berries and dropped one or two of them into each of the forty bowls.

He'd said something then. Probably about how elderberries were used in wine for their tart flavour and rich colour. Taako didn't remember exactly, and all the recorded footage had been handed over to police or destroyed because of broadcasting regulations.

Not that Taako would ever be able to bear watching it happen all over again.

He'd been the first to take a bite, since that was usually the final shot of the show. He'd smiled and swallowed it in one quick go.

Out of all the moments that were hazy, and half-forgotten, that was the one Taako would have given anything he had to relive.

How could he have not tasted it? On a good day, Taako could name the spices in any dish after only one mouthful. But this time, this one time, he had utterly missed the sharp tang that would have told any sane mammal to spit it out.

After that, the cameras had powered down, and he'd invited his audience to try his creation.

While the bowls were being passed around, Sazed joined Taako on the stage. One glance at the expression on Sazed's face told Taako everything he needed to know.

Suddenly, Taako couldn't breathe. A weight was on his chest, and it was crushing the life out of him. He grasped for the countertop, upsetting the bowl full of berries. They spilt all over the floor, rolling in every direction.

The stage spun around him, the studio lights overhead were so bright, too bright. They were burning him alive.

Taako hit the floor hard, gasping and panting. A collective gasp came from the crowd around the stage.

Every part of Taako's body ached with a deep inexorable pain that came and went in waves, threatening to pull him under. His vision blurred, each person around him melting into an indistinguishable blob of colour.

Someone was shaking his shoulder, Taako didn't respond at first. It was too much.

Was he dying? He felt like he was dying. But then, maybe it was for the best? He wasn't sure he wanted to keep living anyway.

A break in the waves let Taako finally get his head above water. Sazed was beside him, Kneeling in the pool of berries.

Bizarrely, Taako's first thought was for Sazed's white pants. Elderberry stains were a pain to wash out... Except there wasn't nearly enough juice, and there were too many seeds in them?

Finally, Taako looked, actually looked at the berries he had put on top of each and every serving.

They were small, black, shiny and covered with a thin waxy coating.

They weren't elderberries.

Taako grabbed Sazed by the collar.

"Call 911, call them now!" He screamed.

Sazed wasn't looking at him anymore, his attention was on the crowd, a few of them had collapsed just like Taako, and others were sitting down clutching their middles. One little girl who had been sitting in the front row was being held tightly by her mother as she cried.

"Taako, what's going on? What was in that chicken?"

It took all Taako's strength to remain lucid, he needed Sazed to tell the emergency services what exactly had happened.

"Nightshade poisoning, forty victims at least… Varying heights and weights..." the little girl was looking so pale, "-and ages. Tell them!"

Shadowy hands wrapped around Taako's throat and squeezed, silencing him. His vision glazed over, and he felt the presence by his shoulder move away, leaving him alone on the tile. Taako closed his eyes, but it didn't shut out the lances of agony piercing through him like a knife to the gut. Apparently, it was too much to ask for the agony to make him pass out.

Lup burned to death, and he had poisoned himself with his own cooking. Was that ironic? It sure felt ironic.

...

It hurt so much.

A hand closed over his own. Taako's eyes were still closed, but he saw the flames all the same. They gently licked and danced over his skin, leaving a pleasant warmth. He followed the hand up to a figure kneeling over him. Fire obscured her face and body, but Taako could feel her presence beside him.

"You know, when I said that I'd die without you, I didn't think it would be quite that quick."

The hand tightened, and she shook her head. She leaned in close, pressing her lips against his forehead, then everything fell away.


	2. Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Taako got out of bed today, and considering how his life had been going lately, that was a victory all on its own.

The next three hours he spent in the bath. The water turned cold after the first half hour, but that didn't make much difference to him. Taako lay submerged, the waterline just over his shoulders.

When he finally resurfaced, the pain in his abdomen had grown enough that he couldn't put off eating any longer. Taako wandered into the tiny kitchen and poured himself a bowl of cereal.

He took it one bite at a time, examining each spoonful carefully before putting it in his mouth and chewing slowly.

He got about ten bites before it happened. Starting where his fingers were touching it, the metal spoon turned pink, the colour creeping over it like speed-up footage of moss growing on a rock.

Taako sat back and held it at arm's length until the whole thing, including the cereal, turned to pink tourmaline. He waited a moment more, but the change seemed to be over.

With a sigh, Taako tossed the now unusable spoon into the sink where it landed on top of a small pile of crystallised spoons.

Taako might have wondered why it was always pink tourmaline, but he didn't really care anymore. At least this way, the worst that could happen was a chipped tooth.

Taako glanced around. In his old apartment, the kitchen had always been the centre of the chaos, full of steaming pots, mouthwatering smells, and half-unloaded shopping bags. By comparison, this kitchen was painfully empty. Taako couldn't bear to see his beloved pots and pans turned to crystal, so he hadn't taken any with him when he moved. The only thing in the cupboards was a handful of plastic dishes that were routinely churned through as his garbage filled up with glimmering pink stone.

Taako's meagre meal was hardly satisfying, but for once, he found himself wanting to do something about it.

Usually, this was the point when he would tuck himself back into bed, but tonight the thought 'I should go out and get something' didn't sound like an impossible feat.

Cooking was out of the question, but if someone else made it, and he ate it fast? As far as Taako knew, nothing had changed after it was inside his stomach.

Taako strayed over to his bedroom, or rather the corner of his apartment he considered his bedroom. Things were notoriously tightly packed in this district, but at least the rent was cheap and it was a lot better than the prison cell Taako should have been occupying.

Had he been given a chance, Taako would have pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter, but Necron had swept the whole thing under the carpet so fast that he hadn't even been discharged from the hospital before it was over.

Fines had been paid, along with damages to the victims or surviving relatives, Taako's name had been added to every blacklist in entertainment and… that was it. The world continued as if nothing had ever happened. As if it hadn't mattered at all.

Taako found his hat laying on the floor. He gave it a little shake until it popped back into shape. He placed it on his head and the pointed tip drooped, folding in on itself. Taako grabbed the wide brim with both hands and pulled it down until it covered his face in shadow.

Next Taako dug through the pile of clothing in and around his futon, looking for something nice but nondescript. He found a black dress with long lace sleeves and slipped into it. The zipper was on the back, and Taako struggled to reach it before calling out, "hey, Lulu! could you come help me wi-"

...

Taako hiked the dress up further with his other hand and grabbed the zipper, pulling it up roughly and ignoring the sound of one or two threads snapping. The dress fit a lot looser then Taako remembered, it used to cling nicely, but now it hung off him like he was wearing a sleeping bag.

Taako found his black stockings rolled up under the bed and pulled them on to keep his legs warm. He crossed to the door and put on his knee-high boots. He took one last look at himself in the mirror. You could still see the vestiges of the makeup he had put on two days ago. Taako had caked it on far too thick, and the result was black streaks running down his cheeks.

It didn't even look stylishly tragic, just pathetic and ugly. Taako thought about fixing it, but a sharp growl from his stomach convinced him against it. Taako pulled his hat down even further and stepped out into the hallway.

There were lots of little hole-in-the-wall establishments littered around the city slums, so Taako simply let himself wander until he found himself inside one of them.

* * *

 

The lonely-hearts cantina was only about the size of a single car garage, but the owner had made excellent use of the space by putting the bar perpendicular to the entrance, so that patrons could choose to sit there or squeeze by to the tables in the back. Taako chose the latter option and picked the table furthest away from the door in the back corner.

The owner, who introduced himself as Friendly, stopped by to get Taako's order. Taako was so hungry that he ended up ordering three main courses. A burger, a salad, and a pile of fries. When you weren't exactly sure of a restaurants quality, it was better to go with the basics.

There were only five other patrons in the bar. Three of them were at the same table, chatting quietly among themselves, and the other two were sitting alone like Taako. Two tables away a burly redheaded human was leaning against the wall and was dragging the blade of a knife over a chunk of rough wood. Taako couldn't quite see what he was making, but the part he was currently working on looked a lot like the beak of a bird.

The other loner was an old dwarf with a long scruffy beard and flowers in his hair. Taako couldn't imagine where he'd gotten them in this district, there wasn't a single green space for miles and flower shops weren't exactly a fixture of the slums.

Friendly came back with the food and placed all three plates down on the table. Taako meant to thank him but found his voice suddenly missing as a wave of anxiety flared inside his chest. Friendly left, leaving him alone with the food.

Taako stared down at it like a deer caught in the headlights. As long as he didn't touch it, none of it would change. The fact that he couldn't eat it without touching it was probably only a minor inconvenience.

Taako took a deep breath and picked up a fork.

' _Stay what you are. Don't change. Just stay whatever shitty material you're made of.'_

The fork shuddered in Taako's hand and transmuted in the blink of an eye, leaving him holding an implement made of a soft, shiny yellow metal. Taako yelped, and it clattered to the floor.

Friendly and the redhead looked over, and Taako slumped his shoulders and pulled his hat down. Once the attention had shifted off him, he slumped over and picked the fork back up.

Was this gold? It looked like gold. Wouldn't that just be utterly fantastic? He could make himself a fortune's worth of jewels in the few days left before he fucking starved to death.

That time the change had taken hold faster than Taako had ever seen it. Were his powers getting stronger? What if he started transmuting something by accident and it never stopped?

Pushing that thought out of his mind. Taako grabbed a small handful of fries, shoved them into his mouth, and started chewing. Halfway through his jaw stilled and he stared down at the plate of fries. He could see the red jalapeno flavouring on the ones on the table, but he swore he was tasting salt and pepper.

Taako hated that flavour.

"Damn it!"

Everyone turned to look at him this time. Taako cringed, wondering if he would have to explain himself this time, but before he could, the door to the bar opened and four new people entered.

A Dragonborn with dark brown scales led the group, followed by an equally massive Orc and... a Goliath?

Friendly dropped the glass he was cleaning, the shatter ringing through the air as the goliath bent over to fit inside the tiny dive-bar. Each was dressed in a perfectly fitted suit, (which was quite the feet when you considered their collective size, there must have been enough fabric there to make at least three tents) and had a lapel pin depicting a silver sword contained within a golden triangle.

Much to Taako's shock, the party didn't stop by the bar, instead making their way through the room towards  **him**.

The Goliath hung back, while the Dragonborn and the orc stopped at either side of his table. Taako looked from one to the other, but they weren't paying the slightest bit of attention to him.

The chair across from Taako was pulled out, and a human sat down in it. He was with the group, but everyone had been so distracted by the larger three, that they'd failed to notice him.

"Good evening, I hope this seat wasn't taken," he said.

Taako stared at him, his mouth hanging open. "H-uh… Hi?"

He was rather handsome by human standards, with short brown curly hair and wearing a pair of stylish tinted glasses. He was dressed in a suit like the others, but his was of visibly higher quality than the other three, made of cashmere and silk with golden cufflinks and buttons.

"It's good to finally meet you, Taako," He said offering his hand. "Although, I must admit I hoped our first meeting would be under better circumstances. I'm Nikolai Koltsov, Chief Executive officer of Necron industries."

Taako sat stock still. This was all way too much for him to take in at once.

"C-CEO of Ne-necron?" Taako stammered. "You… you aren't here about… I didn't mean to do it! It was an accident!"

If Taako didn't already have his shoulders against the wall, he would have slunk back against it. Was this a hit squad? This had to be a hit squad. This is what he got for tarnishing the reputation of an entity with more money and power than a god.

"Taako, relax," Nikolai said, with a small smile. "No, this has nothing to do with your show. That was a regrettable incident, but nothing all that unusual. When you command an empire as big as mine, ' _accidents_ ' happen from time to time."

"o-oh…" Taako replied, his fists closing around two full handfuls of his skirt. Accidents happen? Like the fire.

"I only take issue with what you did  _after_ that unfortunate incident. Particularly, the moment you decided to tuck your tail between your legs and hide from everyone. I must tell you, Taako, that was completely unnecessary, and frankly, made things rather complicated for me. Once it became clear that you'd cut and run from your previous accommodations, we searched the tenement records of everyone reputable enough to keep them, with no success. I can only assume you've taken up residence in the slums now."

"W-what? Why would you-? Why do you care?!"

Nikolai leaned in and pressed a finger to Taako's lips. "Shhh, daddy is talking."

Taako shoved Nikolai's hand away. He had no idea what was going on, but every bone in his body was screaming at him to get out of here.

"Those places are hardly safe. You nearly gave your poor sister a heart attack when she heard. She practically turned this whole city upside down to find you."

Taako's heart skipped a beat. "L-Lup? She's alive?"

"See, if you hadn't run away, you would have known that already." Nikolai shook his head and sighed. "And after I gave you that nice bouquet of flowers…"

Taako was shaking with nerves. Lup? It couldn't be. if she were alive, where had she been? How had she not been able to find him? Why hadn't she texted him, or gotten a message through somehow?

Nikolai stood up and rounded the table, coming to stand beside Taako, both arms crossed behind his back.

"It's time to come home, kitten. To both of us. I don't know what you've been doing on your own, but you look like you've been run over by a truck. You can't imagine how much it hurts me to see your gorgeous body treated like that. It's as if you haven't eaten anything since your show ended."

Then Nikolai noticed the golden fork laying on the table. He picked it up and examined it.

"I see. Well, we can find a way to fix  _this_  as well."

Nikolai put it back down and offered his hand to Taako. "Come."

The table Taako was sitting at shuddered briefly, then collapsed into a pool of dark brown liquid that looked suspiciously like Coca-Cola. Nikolai and his thugs didn't blink an eye, but Friendly shouted something Taako couldn't hear over the blood in his ears.

Taako pulled his legs up and hugged them to his chest, ignoring the sticky residue on his boots. Nothing made sense right now and, fuck, Lup might be alive.

"I…um," Taako said, pausing to take a shuddering breath. He reached up to tuck a loose strand of blond hair back behind his ear and said, "H-how about… no? Y-yeah, I think I'm going to take a big old pass on that one. Because frankly, my dude, you're creepy as hell."

Nikolai frowned.

"Fine. The hard way it is then."

The Dragonborn reached into their pocket, pulled out a gun, and fired. The projectile caught Taako point-blank in the shoulder, knocking him off his chair and into the pool of soda. The pain was excruciating, but it only lasted a second before the drugs in the dart kicked in.

The orc leaned down and scooped up Taako's unconscious body. Nikolai glared at him, and the orc handed Taako over.

Nikolai cradled Taako to his chest. He threaded his fingers through Taako's hair, tilting his head up and leaning in to kiss the elf full on the lips.

"Okay, that's more than enough of that. Drop him!"

The redhaired human who had been whittling in the corner was on his feet now, holding a huge battleaxe in both hands. Nikolai rolled his eyes and looked over at the Goliath. The Goliath took a step forward and grabbed the human by the back of his collar, dragging him out the door and into the street.

Friendly jumped over the bar, but the Dragonborn got out in front of him and punched him straight in the jaw, clearing the way for Nikolai. The three at the table watched with dumbstruck expressions, apparently rooted to their chairs.

A small smile spread over Nikolai's face as he ducked through the door. These twins of his had given him so much trouble, but they would be worth it in the end.

The dwarf who had been sitting at the bar followed Nikolai out and yelled after him, "Hey! You should really put that guy down. I don't think he agreed to whatever it is you're doing!"

Without needing to be instructed, the orc intercepted the dwarf. Grabbing him by the arm and pulling him over to where the Goliath was fighting with the human.

Nikolai wasn't worried, his enforcers could more than handle a few meddlesome bystanders, though he was a little surprised they had even bothered.

A sudden burning pain shot up Nikolai's arms, flames crawled up his suit, heat and smoke forcing him to drop Taako. Nikolai grit his teeth bat the flames down with his hands. Fortunately, all if his suits had been treated with flame resistant chemicals before the acquisition of his new pet.

Taako landed in the gutter and tried to pull himself up into a sitting position, but each movement was slow and robotic, and didn't quite have the intended effect.

Nikolai strode over, but before he could get near, the ground in front of him erupted into a wall of flame that wrapped in on itself, forming a circle around Taako.

Taako finally found his feet, and when his gaze rose to meet Nikolai's, his irises were glowing a deep blood red.

"Hmmm…" Nikolai hummed, raising his eyebrows at the elf.

The elf clenched their fingers, and fire began gathering in the palm of their hand, but just as the critical mass necessary to launch a good fireball approached, the flames protecting the caster started to die down.

Sensing his moment, Nikolai stepped over the dying flames, making a grab for the elf's arm.

"No, get away!" they yelled and stumbled backwards, tripping over their own feet and landing in a heap on the pavement again. As soon as their concentration on the fireball broke, the protective wall of flame surged back to its full height.

"I… I won't… I won't let you take him!" the elf shouted over the roaring fire.

Nikolai crossed his arms over his chest and tapped his bottom lip with his pointer finger as he examined the sight before him.

"Lup, Lup, Lup, you clever little bitch, what have you gone and done now?" He mused allowed.

Nikolai walked a full circle around the wall of fire while the elf inside kept their eyes fixed on him, their shoulders hunched almost as high as their pointed ears.

"This is tactless even for you. I wonder, what will Taako think once he finds out what you did to him?"

Nikolai let out a low chuckle, then glanced over his shoulder. Amazingly, the redhead and the dwarf were still holding their ground, which explained why none of his useless creatures had come to help him. He could get them to beat down his little rebellious firebird, but then he might run the risk of killing them.

This whole operation was coming apart at the seams and murders were such a pain to cover up, especially when witnesses could testify to his presence on the scene. Time to regroup and factor in this interesting little development into the plan.

"I suppose I must concede this round to you," Nikolai admitted, giving the elf a short bow. "Until we meet again, my angel, please do what you can to get Taako to take better care of himself. I don't think either of us are comfortable with the current state of affairs."

With that, Nikolai turned away, ignoring the string of forceful expletives being thrown in his direction.

He gestured to the Goliath, who, in an act of surprising dexterity given his massive size, sidestepped a swing of the redhead's battle axe and started striding with purpose down the nearest side-street.

The Dragonborn ducked out of the bar, dodging a vicious left hook from Friendly, and together with the orc, scattered in opposite directions.

The fight was over so fast that everyone who hadn't vanished was left just standing around, unsure of what they should do next.

"Uh... Well, since we've just fought together, I suppose I should introduce myself, I'm Magnus." The redheaded human said, offered the dwarf his hand.

"Sure, mine's Merle," Merle said with a shrug as he took Magnus' hand, his fist almost disappearing behind Magnus' sausage-sized digits.

Friendly stood at the door of his bar, glancing down the street at the bright flickering light.

"Um, guys? think your friend needs a little help over there..." he reminded them.

"Oh shit!"

With that said, Magnus rushed down the street, only slowing when he felt the first wave of heat radiating off the protective wall of flame.

The elf he had seen get abducted was sitting on the ground in the centre, curled up in a ball and hugging their knees to their chest. Magnus could hear that they were mumbling under their breath, but the words were unintelligible.

Magnus Inched as close as he could handle to the fire and cupped both his hands around his mouth.

"Hey, are you alright?"

The elf's head jerked up, and Magnus was struck by the unnatural bright red in their eyes. They stood up stiffly, taking an extra moment to find their balance.

"Who are you? What do you want?!"

"I'm Magnus, I was in the bar, and I saw everything that happened. I'm pretty sure that asshole and his goons are gone now."

The elf glanced around as if they were seeing their surroundings for the first time. By now, Merle had caught up with Magnus, though he gave the wall of flame a larger birth.

"You tried to help me, didn't you?" The elf asked focusing back on Magnus.

"Of course, I couldn't just let him kidnap you," Magnus replied without hesitation.

"That's why I helped to," Merle added.

The elf considered the pair of them. Neither Merle nor Magnus knew by what metric they were being judged, but they certainly felt the scrutiny.

The elf nodded, and the wall of flame snuffed itself out in a cloud of black smoke. Their shoulders dropped, and one hand took hold of the opposite elbow.

"Thanks…" they said.

A long silence passed between the three of them before the elf spoke up again.

"Um... hey, if you still feel like helping, could you take me to a hospital?"

Magnus took a step forward and sheathed his battle axe in the holster over his shoulder.

"Sure, Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, I'm starting to come down off a lot of adrenaline, and I think I'm going to pass out now."

"Oh, do you want me to catch you?"

"Yeah, sure."

The elf took a deep breath and suddenly went limp. Magnus jumped forward to grab them, hoisting the slender body up in both arms with ease.


	3. A Crying, Burning Liar

Taako glanced up from his book when the nurse entered his room. He hadn't really been reading it, but the hospital staff tended to get concerned if he stared at the walls for hours on end, so he'd compromised.

"Afternoon, Taako. You have a few guests. Should I send them in?"

Taako stared blankly at her.

"Guests?"

"Yes?" The nurse replied, evidently as confused at his confusion as he was by her statement.

Taako frowned down at his folded legs. He honestly had no idea who would want to see him or who would even know he was here.

"Sure, fine, whatever."

The nurse nodded and went to go hold open the door for a human and a dwarf. It took Taako a full five seconds to recognise them as two of the other patrons that had been in The Lonely Heart's cantina the night he had… that night. A nurse had mentioned that he'd been brought in by some concerned citizens, so these were probably them.

The redhead wasted no time in grabbing a chair, dragging it over to Taako's bed and sitting down backward in it, his elbows folded over the backrest.

"Hey, how are you doing, buddy?" he asked.

Taako shifted away from the human. "Fine. I mean, I was fine before, so I'm fine now. See, the thing about drugs is; they tend to wear off."

The redhead frowned, apparently not expecting the icy reception. "Well, yeah, but that's still a pretty fucked up thing to happen to someone."

The dwarf nodded along sagely. "You shouldn't overlook the risk of phycological trauma."

Taako looked from one to the other. They'd only been in his room five minutes, and somehow, he'd already had it up to the tips of his pointy ears with the pair of them. "Okay right, let's just back this train up like six hundred miles, who the fuck are either of you?" he asked.

The redhead exchanged a look with the dwarf and said, "You don't remember?"

"No, I don't remember! I got shot in the arm with a tranquilliser dart!" Taako snapped.

"but you were up and walking after that?" the redhead replied, his voice going up at the end like it was a question and not a statement.

"Yeah, you had all this fire going here, there, and everywhere, it was really cool," The dwarf chipped in.

Taako closed his book, and his fingers tightened around the spine. He'd known that something didn't add up. He hadn't remembered seeing anyone remotely capable of taking on Nikolai and his goons. These two clowns clearly weren't an elite fighting force, but if they hadn't scared Nikolai away, who, or what had?

"I can't do fire," Taako stated flatly, "My augments aren't attuned like that."

"Well, it sure looked a heck of a lot like fire," The dwarf said.

Taako took a long, deep breath and clapped his hands together. "Okay, let's try this again, compadres, my name is Taako…" Taako pointed to himself then turned his finger on the redhead, nearly jabbing his chest.

"and you are?"

"Magnus Burnsides. Adventurer and local hero."

Taako pointed at the dwarf, but he didn't seem to get the message until he asked, "name?"

"Oh! Merle Highchurch… cleric and uh… spreader of the good word of the mighty nature god, Pan."

Taako nodded. So, a mercenary and a missionary who were probably expecting a payout in return for saving him? Yeah, that tracked.

"Well, Magnus and Merle, thanks for whatever you did so that I'm not in a Necron corporate holding cell right now, but I don't really have any reward I can give you.

"What? No. We don't want anything like that," Magnus insisted.

"Then why are you here?

"We were worried about you. It didn't seem right just to drop you off and forget about it," Merle explained.

Taako's mouth hung slightly open, he didn't know how to respond to that. He wanted to be suspicious, but something about the look in Magnus' eyes made it hard to doubt him. He really did look like an honest, standup guy. As if those existed in this city.

Thankfully the silence was broken as Taako's doctor swept into the room.

She was a mature elf woman with long, straight, medium blond-brown hair, wearing a pair of black glasses and pale green hospital scrubs under her white coat.

"Hey, Sydnee," Taako greeted, repressing the urge to add; 'Fucking finally, where have you been!'

"I brought your discharge paperwork," Sydnee stated, handing him a tablet and a plastic stylist. Taako took them eagerly and began filling out the empty information fields.

Sydnee crossed her arms over her chest. "I need to remind you that by signing this, you're acknowledging that you're being discharged  **against**  medical advice."

"Uh-huh," Taako replied absently, as he scribbled down the date and time.

Probably sensing that she wasn't going to make any headway with her patient, Sydnee turned to the other two and asked, "you're friends of Taako's?"

"Yes!" Magnus declared, just managing to drown out Taako's "No."

Sydnee looked up at Magnus, choosing her words carefully. "If it's possible, I think you should stick close for the next little while. It'd be good if Taako had someone to watch out for him."

Magnus straightened to his full height and gave her a salute. "Yes, ma'am!"

Taako wasn't paying attention to what was going on around him anymore. He was holding the tablet at arm's length, staring at the completed form with his signature at the bottom.

"What the fuck?" he muttered under his breath. "That's not my…"

Magnus, Merle and Sydnee all leaned in to see what was bothering him, but the paperwork looked perfectly normal.

"Uh, you know, maybe the doc is right to keep you here a few more days. Remember what I just said about trauma?" Merle pointed out.

"No! look." Taako pointed to the data entry field labelled 'Address:' which read;

> 1481 7th Ave, Basement level 5, Apartment 358. Come find me. Hurry.

"One, I definitely don't live there, and two, I didn't write that," Taako insisted.

Magnus leaned further over Taako's shoulder to get a better look. "So, we should go check it out, right?

"What? Why would you do that? Why would anyone do that?" Taako retorted, "It was probably just the autocomplete or something… look I'll just..."

Taako jabbed the backspace on the touchscreen keyboard until it was blank and tried again. He got about as far as the A in Ave before he realised he was filling in the same information.

"Shit, fuck..."

Taako grabbed his right wrist with his left hand, balancing the tablet on his thighs as he slowly and methodically tapped in his address. As soon as it was all down he thrust it back into Sydnee's hands.

Sydnee frowned down at the screen, but there wasn't much more she could do about it. She looked up at Magnus, who nodded firmly and gave her a thumbs-up, as if to say, 'don't worry, I got this.'

Sydnee moved to the door, pausing to give Magnus a return thumbs-up before leaving.

"Alright homies, it was sure… something, making your acquaintance, but I really have to get dressed and ready to leave," Taako insisted, as he pulled himself out of bed. "The door is that way, I assume you know how to use it."

"So, we'll meet you in the lobby then?" Magnus asked.

Taako paused midway through laying out his black dress on the bed. It was the same one he arrived at the hospital with, but one of the nurses had given it a wash to get the cola out.

"Uh, no? I don't even know you people, I've already forgotten your names. Was it Merman and Angus... or something? Get out."

"But you're going to go check out that address, right? We should come with you, just in case," Magnus insisted.

"I'm not going to check anything out, I'm going home and getting in the bath for ten solid hours until this nightmare week washes off."

Merle sidled up beside Taako and rested a comforting hand on his hip. "Hey kid, not to sound like an old nag, but I don't really think this is something you can ignore until it goes away. That creep we scared off didn't seem like the kind of guy who would quit after the first try."

Taako slapped Merle's hand away and went back to smoothing out his clothing. He was silent for another moment, then he said, "Fine. I'll see you in the lobby."

Reluctantly, Magnus and Merle inched towards the door. The turnaround was so quick that it wasn't quite clear if Taako was serious.

Taako turned back to them, resting one hand on his waist. "Look, for the record, I don't trust either of you, but I'd also be lying if I said you weren't my best shot at figuring literally any of this out. So, I'm going to come with you, just let me put my clothing on, for fuck's sake."

Magnus laughed heartily and nodded. "alright, we're going, and if you really did forget our names again, I'm Magnus, and he's Me-"

"I was just making a point! Go!"

* * *

 

"Well, this is it..."

Taako glanced up from the screen of his cell phone and tilted his head all the way back as he took in the full scale of the residential tower. The building was little more than a colossal block, stamped from a mould to meet increased housing demand. A hundred floors in one direction and twenty in the other, buried like a shard of obsidian that had fallen from the sky and penetrated the bedrock. Neon advertisements were affixed to the side facing the street, obscuring the windows in some places.

Taako glanced from Magnus to Merle. He'd forgotten how much easier it was to walk the streets when you weren't on your own. Shoulder to shoulder with Lup, he'd learned how to look intimidating enough to be passed over for softer targets, but there were no softer targets then a lone malnourished elf in heels. To make it anywhere in one piece, Taako needed to constantly be on his guard, taking everyone and everything that moved as a possible threat.

Taako's two companions didn't have a shred of street sense between them, they'd both admitted to being fresh arrivals, but Magnus' height and build were enough to give anyone second thoughts.

"So, it was the fifth floor, right?" Magnus asked.

"fifth basement level," Taako clarified, leading the way into the building. The lobby, while probably designed with the best of intentions, had become thoroughly unpleasant once reality took over. Faded pastel wallpaper was peeling off the walls, and the floor was covered in bits of trash that was starting to build up in the corners.

Above them, a chandelier listed at a concerning angle, hanging by a frayed wire. Taako carefully picked his way around both it and the trash, until he made it to the elevator bank on the far side. He pressed the down button, and the doors of the elevator in the centre slid open, revealing a coffin-sized interior.

Taako frowned and began looking around for a staircase, but before he could determine if one existed or not, Magnus stepped into the elevator, pushing Taako along. Merle followed, and the doors shut behind them leaving the three boys crammed elbow to arse in the tiny space.

"Dang, this is a really small elevator, huh?" Magnus observed, completely bent over under the low ceiling. "Maybe we should have taken the stairs?"

Taako rolled his eyes so hard his vision blurred. He snaked his arm around Magnus' hip and through Merle's beard to reach the buttons and pressed the one labelled B4. The tiny box rattled and shook its way down the elevator shaft. If there were any space left it would have been hard to stay upright but instead the shaking faceplanted Merle into Taako's lower tummy and made Taako inadvertently grab and tug Magnus's belt, nearly pulling his trousers off.

At last the doors opened, and with a non-zero amount of complaining and cries of pain, as someone stepped or leaned on something they shouldn't, the boys managed to extricate themselves one by one and move out into the dark hallway. Only about a third of the lights were in working order, and more than a few of those were flickering, clearly on their last legs. The apartment doors were interspersed exactly every three meters and made of identical sheets of metal, with only their numbers stencilled in black paint to tell them apart.

Taako took out his cell phone and shone it around the hallway. The elevator split the numbers down the middle. 200 and lower to the left, 301 and higher to the right. Despite the huge number of units, the hallways were completely empty and quiet. No babies crying or music playing, no feedback from a television or a video game, just silence.

Taako swallowed. The hand not holding his cell phone crossed over his middle as he hugged himself tightly.

"Okay, this way…"

Taako led the way to the right, shining his light on every door they passed, counting the numbers in his head.

355… 356… 357…

Taako stopped in front of 358. It looked just like all the others.

"So… should we knock?" Merle asked.

Taako shook his head. "I have to do something here…" he closed his eyes tightly, he knew it was in his head somewhere, but the information he needed kept slipping through his fingers.

"I think I found something!"

Taako looked up to see Magnus opening a panel on the wall just to the left of the door. The fracture line hiding it had been almost invisible in the gloom. Behind the panel was a thin layer of glass with a lens behind it. A light from behind the glass clicked on, glowing a soft pinkish-red.

"Maybe it's a fingerprint scanner?" Merle suggested.

Taako reached up and pressed his hand against the glass. The light flashed once, then twice. The boys waited, holding their breath, but nothing else changed.

"No..." Taako murmured, "we have different fingerprints…"

He's asked Lup why that was once. Why their fingerprints were different, why he didn't know what gender dysphoria felt like, why he loved sweets and she preferred spice.

 

> _"Well you see, kitten, we came from the same fertilised egg, so we have the same genotype, which is kind of like a blueprint? But even if you have the same plans, the buildings are built separately, so the wiring gets put in just a little different, or a hammer gets forgotten in the air ducts… Look, this metaphor is falling apart. Point is, we were identical when the egg split, but over time tiny differences here and there got extrapolated into big ones, like how a crack spreads."_

"Magnus, do you have something sharp that's a little smaller than your battle-axe?" Taako asked.

"Oh, sure." Magnus patted down his sides for a moment before he remembered about the holster on his boot. He bent over and pulled out a knife with an old-fashioned wooden handle.

"It used to belong to my grandfather," Magnus explained.

Taako took it from his hand and pressed the blade against the pad of his thumb. Increasing the pressure one fraction at a time until he drew a single drop of blood. Taako dropped the hand holding the knife and pressed his bloody finger to the glass scanner.

The light flashed green and the door opened with a soft 'pop'.

"Whoa, how did you know...?" Magnus started to ask until Taako shoved the knife back into his hands.

"Blueprints..." Taako murmured as he stepped into the room. It was just as dark inside as in the hallway, so Taako took small steps, shining his cellphone down at his feet to make sure he didn't trip. As soon as all three boys were inside, the door swung closed and the lights flickered on.

There were only two doors in the whole apartment, the front door and the one leading to the bathroom, everything else was a single room with the kitchen, bedroom and study mixed together and colliding at odd angles.

A single person cot was pushed into one corner, next to an electric cooler and a flimsy plywood table topped with a hotplate and a soup pot. There was a single set of dishware and a lone cup on the floor next to an inflatable chair that had gone flat and a pile of decorative throw pillows. Clothing was laying around, including a white lab coat, some business casual attire and a pink bra with teddy bears on it.

The only part that didn't look like a dorm room after frosh week was the desk area. Three monitors were set up side by side, with a large computing unit tucked underneath and a backlit keyboard and mouse laid out in front.

Just to the right of the monitors, standing at about a foot tall and seven inches wide, was a grey metal cylinder stamped in red with a single Chinese character.

龍

Taako sat down in the desk chair and took another look around. He couldn't quite process what he was seeing. Lup had been here but couldn't begin to guess why or even when. If the deflated chair and the dust starting to accumulate on the desk and keyboard were any indication, she hadn't been here in a while.

"Why did you hide this from me?" Taako asked the empty room, staring up at the bare concrete ceiling.

"I'm sure they had good intentions," Magnus insisted. "We just can't see the whole picture yet."

Taako nodded, although the ache in his chest didn't subside even a fraction. Lup had  **lied**  to him. If not directly, then by omission. She was supposed to be his partner in crime, the other half of his heart, if he couldn't trust her then…

Taako poked the mouse and the monitors switched on, displaying the desktop. It was completely devoid of icons except for a single video file in the centre named 'play me'. Taako moved the pointer over to it. He had to try clicking on it several times, his hand was shaking so hard that he kept missing.

Finally, the file opened, and Taako found himself looking at a camera-shot of the apartment filmed from somewhere behind the monitor he was looking at. In the desk chair he was now sitting in was Lup. She looked tired but otherwise no worse for wear and very much alive. The video had a time code embedded in it, and Taako's heart slunk down even further in his belly when he realised it dated back before the fire.

"The video recording of Lup looked up at him, her kaleidoscope eyes shifting through several colours before settling back into their once-natural blue.

"Taako, if you're watching this then…" Lup paused and buried her head in both hands. "I don't know why I said that. That was way too cliché, even for me."

The video cut there, splicing together two separate moments as the first take lead into the second one. Lup was leaning on her elbows now, looking a little bit more put-together then she had a second ago.

"I fucked up, babe. I fucked up really, really, badly and I… I don't even know where to start explaining how."

Lup took a deep breath and sat up.

"Sweetheart, you know that everything about this city is wrong. We never talk about it since it's so depressing, but I know you feel it too. I think up until now we survived by pretending we were scamming the system, like since we weren't born at the top of the food chain, it didn't apply to us, but that was never true, especially after I joined up with Necron.

I kept making excuses, I told myself that I was only a cog in an unstoppable machine, and I got so caught up in my work that I didn't see the consequences until it was too late. Taako, I helped create something dangerous and powerful and if Necron keeps what I made for themselves, it will destroy what little balance there is left in this broken shell of a city. I need to do everything I can to fix this... or, I guess if you're here, it's more like 'I had to'."

Lup cracked a sad smile at the screen, but the joke buried under Taako's skin like a splinter. Taako's attention was fully focused on the monitors, so he didn't notice that the desk chair he was sitting had turned to crystal. The pink tourmaline had started where his fingernails were dug into the armrest and was nearly down to the three wheels that connected it to the floor.

"I could sit here all day and try to justify myself to you, but none of it matters anymore, the only thing left that I can still protect is you. So, listen up. You're being hunted. That powerful and dangerous thing I created? I put a piece of it in you. Your augmentations aren't like anything on the market here or anywhere else. Once you've mastered your abilities, an entire army won't be able to take you down, but until then you're vulnerable, and there's a man who knows all about this who will move heaven and earth to pin you down before you come into your own. You must outrun him."

Lup shifted to the side, and a picture of the man Taako had met in the dive bar was edited into the video beside Lup.

"His name is Nikolai Kozlov, he's the CEO of Necron and my ex-boss. So you know, I tried to kill him. Oh god, am I going to try, but if you're here, that probably didn't work out."

The pink gemstone had taken over about half the floor by now, forcing Magnus and Merle to take several steps back.

"Hey, Taako, we… uh, we're running out of room back here. Could you maybe stop?" Magnus called, but Taako didn't give any indication he had heard him.

"I made you something to help. Someone to answer the questions I can't anymore. She's why you found this place, and she should be done powering up by now, so..." Lup held up the grey cylinder that was now resting on the desk and said, "crack it open."

The video ended, and the screen went dark. Taako grabbed the cylinder, fumbling it as he searched for the release mechanism. Finally, he found a button hidden on the bottom and clicked it down. The cylinder split down the middle of the Chinese character with a loud hiss. Taako saw a flash of blue and something wriggling inside, then a paw with five claw-tipped fingers grasped the edge of the cylinder and a pair of silvery blue wings unfurled, beating at the air as the dragon reared up onto its hind legs.

It was only about as big as the average puppy and was covered in small metal scales that interlocked together to protect its mechanical insides.

Taako had seen toys like this before, he had even wondered about buying one, since it was much cheaper than owning a real pet. They'd been a huge craze a few years back, and everyone who was anyone had owned one or two. They had since fallen out of favour though, primarily because of the limits of their programming. The pitch had been for robotic pets that also acted as personal assistants, but the AI had never quite been up for the challenge.

The dragon settled both its paws on Taako's chest and blinked up at him with bright red eyes. She reached up with her long neck, parting scaly lips to reveal tiny pointed teeth and a long pink tongue that flicked softly against Taako's cheek.

"Take a deep breath, okay? I'm here now. We're going to make this right. I promise."

The dragon's voice had a tinge of vocalizer in it, making it sound like she was half-saying half singing her words.

Taako did as she said, forcing himself to settle into a pattern of deep breathing. The anxiety that had been ripping him apart waned ever so slightly and the slow advance of the pink crystal crinkle-tinkled to a halt.

Carefully, Magnus picked his way across the pink stone and over to Taako. The dragon looked up as he approached and said, "Magnus! thanks for taking Taako to the hospital for me."

"Uh, you're welcome! But um, wait… who are you?" Magnus replied.

"My name is Umbra. I'm an AI that Lup, Taako's sister, created."

"Oh, that's cool. You must be what we're looking for then."

"Well, technically I've been with you the entire time. This is just a shell I can use to communicate more clearly."

"What happened to her?"

Taako's question cut through the ongoing conversation like a knife. Umbra sat back down on Taako's lap and wrapped her long tail around her hips.

"I don't know."

"You don't know?" Taako repeated. "Are you telling me that Lup when to all the trouble of hiding her secrets in an underground bunker, just so you could tell me diddly squat?"

"Taako I haven't been in this room, I've been with you, I've only seen what you have!" Umbra insisted.

"Then what's the point of you being here at all? What is the point of any of this?!"

The dragon shrunk back down, it's wings settling against its back. "Lup didn't want you to be alone."

"Yeah well, maybe she should have thought of that before she left me without even explaining why!" Taako snapped back. He shoved Umbra off his lap and stood, turning his back on her and heading for the door.

Umbra caught herself on her four paws, and with a powerful beat of her wings she flew up and landed on the back of the crystallised chair.

"Taako, wait! Lup wanted me to tell you something…"

Taako froze mid-step, but he didn't turn or look at her.

Umbra swallowed, or mimicked the motion at least, after all, she was a robotic dragon.

"She said that she loves you, and she's sorry that she was too stubborn to tell you the truth. After everything that's happened… Well, I think it's safe to say that lying to you was the biggest mistake she ever made."

Taako still didn't turn to face her or even say anything back, he just slumped to the floor among the reflective pink crystal he had transmuted. The others looked on worriedly until Taako finally let go of the breath he had been holding in the form of a deep shoulder-shaking sob. Tears soon followed, running down his cheeks and vanishing somewhere in the ocean of black fabric he was dressed in.

Merle ambled over and patted Taako firmly on the back. "Hey, we're going to find your sister, alright? Even if the dragon lady is clueless, we're clearly one step closer."

Magnus came over as well, though he had to kneel to get level with the others. He wrapped one burly arm around Taako's shoulders and pulled him into a tight hug. Taako froze up for a moment before his thoroughly taxed defences fizzled and he relaxed against Magnus.

Flushed with success, Magnus pulled Merle in with his other arm, turning it into a group hug.

Umbra slowly padded over, her eyes fixed on Taako. Approaching with the hesitation of someone who doesn't know if their presence will help or hinder. Magnus waved her over, and Umbra jumped up to his shoulder and crossed his arm to press the flat of her scaly head against Taako's cheek.

After a moment longer curled up together, Magnus asked, "so what's next?"


	4. I Can Give You a Private Show

"Yes, no, and no."

The bouncer moved his finger down the line as he delivered judgement. Starting with Taako and ending with Merle.

"But we're together," Magnus insisted.

"Don't care. We're full up on tough guys and dwarves for tonight. Ladies, or those who look like ladies, only."

Umbra snorted derisively from her perch on Taako's shoulder. Taako silently agreed. What else could you expect from a club called 'Inferno' that had a two-story tall hologram of a naked Tiefling projected above its neon-flame embellished sign?

"We just need to get in, find my contact and get out," Umbra reminded them, slinking back behind Taako's pointy hat so she wouldn't be overheard.

Magnus mimicked her, stooping down and leaning behind the elf's shoulder. "I don't want to leave Taako on his own."

Umbra shook her scaly head. "No one is saying you'd have to sit with your thumbs up your butts. We'll get a head-start while you guys try to find another way in."

Merle took a half step behind Taako to join the others and said, "I could probably squeeze in a window somewhere, but I'm not sure that will work for Big-boy here."

Taako was trying his best to pretend he didn't notice his companions plotting behind his back, even though both were a deal stouter and/or taller than he was and looked like a pair of hippos trying to hide behind an eccentrically dressed fig tree.

Taako had stopped off at his place to change into something more club appropriate. Namely, a midnight-black, skin-tight, low-necked, long-sleeved shirt with diamond cut-outs around his tummy and sides, a pair of golden leather leggings, and neon-purple Fur-covered boots. He'd topped it off with every LED-fused accessory he owned, including two wrist-fulls of color changing bangles, a rainbow choker, and a clip-on belly ring.

"So, uh…" Taako began, searching desperately for something to say to distract the bouncer. "How do you decide how short is too short when it comes to skirts? Is it like a waterline situation or do you get a ruler out and-"

The bouncer raised his hand, cutting Taako off mid-sentence, "You're attractive enough for this invitation to last thirty seconds. In or out?"

"The boys have a plan, let's go," Umbra whispered in his ear.

Taako nodded and passed through the opening in the velvet rope. Giving one last glance over his shoulder at Magnus and Merle. If he had to bet on them finding another way in, he wouldn't have wagered more than ten dollars.

The music had been plenty loud out on the street, but as soon as Taako got past the doors, he felt the base hit his chest like a physical weight. A few people were lingering around the entranceway. A halfling woman in a silver spandex dress was sitting on the desk of the coat check, a small bundle of white fluff curled in her lap. The dog lifted his head focusing two camera lens eyes towards Umbra, acknowledging her the same way two members of any species might.

Umbra puffed herself up, suddenly reminded that she was supposed to look like an accessory. No one bought a top-of-the-line robotic dragon to have it cower on their shoulders.

Taako paused at the top of the stairs leading down to the dancefloor. Above them was a three stories tall atrium, with inward facing balconies and a huge screen where the roof should be, displaying a swirling, technicolour star-scape.

"Where did you say this cat would be? Taako asked.

"Somewhere here," Umbra murmured, "it's a lot bigger then I remembered…"

"Fantastic."

"Let's try the bar first."

Taako took a deep breath and descended the steps into the crowd. People were packed elbow to elbow, with the concentration only growing denser around the DJ's booth. A smattering of people had their cell phones out recording the performance, so the DJ in question probably wasn't just a no-name disc jockey.

Seeing the lit-up phones reminded Taako that there was a chance he might be recognised. He hadn't been in a crowd like this in a while, so there was no telling how many of them might have seen his show, or worse, the news reports afterwards.

Taako wove his way through the dancefloor, keeping his head down and his hat brim pointed forward. The lounge and eating area was on the far side, back up more stairs. The bar was made of a single contiguous chunk of white stone carved in a semi-circle. It was staffed by four bartenders with their backs turned to a mountain of bottles arranged on a ten-tiered glass tower.

Taako found an empty stool on the far side and sat down. He went to go lean on the bar. The moment his fingers touched it, he realised why the stone looked so uncannily smooth. A thin layer of water ran over it. The flow started from a half-inch tall lip on the bartender side then trickled over and down before vanishing into a grate in the floor.

A few places away a drunk human was trying to disrupt the water flow and make it splash the woman sitting beside him, but there really wasn't enough to do more than get your hand wet.

Umbra braced her back paws on Taako's shoulders and leapt up to his head, crushing his hat in the process. Taako winced as her hind claws pulled his hair. Before he could complain, Umbra was back on his shoulders.

"I don't see him."

"This is going to take all night, isn't it?" Taako muttered, taking his own look around the bar and the dining tables surrounding it. Projectors in the ceiling shone down at the walls, lighting up the otherwise plain surface with images of waveforms swaying in perfect time to the music.

"Yeah…" Umbra agreed. She jumped from Taako's shoulder and landed on the bar, the water parted around her paws. "New plan, you stay here, and I'll fly around and scan the crowd for him."

"Right, just remind me what I'm looking for?"

"Short brown hair, brown eyes, glasses, probably looks like every second he spends here is causing him untold agony… and wearing a pair of blue jeans."

"Jeans?" Taako asked, his eyebrows knitting and nose scrunching up. "In a club?

"He makes it work?"

"Right. Okay. Go, go do your thing."

With Taako's acquiescence, Umbra flashed her sliver-blue wings and shot up into the air. A few people ducked unnecessarily as the dragon soared high over their heads and out into the central atrium. Taako watched her go, then slumped against the backrest of his stool.

He hadn't had a chance to rest since getting out of the hospital, and now that his forward momentum had stalled, he had to wonder if he would ever be able to stand up again. There was a deep ache in his feet and legs, and he felt like if he closed his eyes for too long, he might just pass out.

One of the bartenders from the other side of the circle, a dark elf with short white curly hair, rounded the racks of bottles and leaned over to whisper to the colleague standing closest to Taako. Taako ignored them until they both turned to stare directly at him.

The second bartender swapped positions with the dark elf, giving her full domain over the side Taako was sitting on. She began nervously inching towards him, her hands gravitating up to cover her mouth.

Taako looked her up and down. He didn't recognize her as one of the plaintiffs from the class-action lawsuit and It didn't look like she was armed, but that didn't really mean anything. Flip-blades and plasma weapons could easily be manufactured small enough to hide in a pocket.

"Oh. My. God."

**Shit.**

"You're Taako!"

Taako forced a smile to his lips. "Uhh… Yup. I-I sure am."

"I watched your stream every week! Your introduction to cocktails is why I got into bartending!"

The dark elf did a little spin to show off her uniform. A black and red vest over a white shirt and a half apron over her pants. The pocket of the apron had an R monogrammed in gold on it, just like the T that had once emblazoned Taako's stage gear. Taako wasn't sure what had happened to his, he'd left it behind, along with everything else related to cooking.

"That's, um, good to hear..."

"I'm Ren! It's so amazing to meet you!" Ren enthused, jumping up and down in her continued excitement.

Takko didn't know how anyone who'd been a fan could still look at him with anything besides contempt. According to social media, he was either a psychopath, suicidal or just incredibly stupid.

"I really miss the live-streams, but I'm sure you're new Necron exclusive is just as good. I, um, I haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet, but I put up web keyword blocks so that I won't get spoiled.

Oh.

"You know what? Maybe just skip the reboot," Taako suggested. "We had some production hiccups and some backstage disagreements. It didn't exactly turn out like I had hoped."

"Really? I'm sorry. But I mean, you're in it, and you make everything like 100% better, so it can't be that awful," Ren insisted.

Months ago, Taako would have glowed at the compliment, accepting it graciously as the unvarnished truth, but this time he couldn't even make the word 'thanks' come out of his mouth.

"So, you're not still doing the broadcast show?" Ren asked.

"No, uh, we didn't get renewed. But I'm working on something brand new. I can't talk about it yet."

"Ahhh! that's awesome, I can't wait!" Ren glanced around as if suddenly remembering where she was. "Shoot, I haven't even asked you if you want a drink yet. Wait! don't tell me…"

Ren flitted over to the bottles and pulled several down off the shelf. She put a bit of each into a large shaker full of ice, then stopped by a small fridge under the tower to get a carton of coconut cream. Once everything was together, she slapped on the lid, gave it several shakes, then poured the result out into a glass, topped it with whipped cream and a small handful of sprinkles, and placed the finished drink on the counter.

"A birthday cake cocktail! Just like the one you made for your 5 million subscriber special!" Ren slid it toward Taako. "Here, it's on the house."

"That's alright, I'd hate it if you got in trouble."

"No, I insist. We're supposed to give free drinks to VIPs."

Taako relented and picked up the glass. The drink tasted like a mix of melted ice cream and confetti cake, the kind of ultra-sweet thing you saved for an occasion in deference to your waistline. A treat rare enough that Taako hadn't had one since he'd invented it.

If Taako remembered the recipe right, there was also a fuck-ton of alcohol in there. Three shots of vodka, plus the liquors. A few more like that, he might start forgetting about how one of the most powerful mega-corps in the city was out for his blood and that he was apparently a walking/talking weapon of mass destruction. Given how much damage he had done by accident, he really wasn't excited to find out what could happen if he tried to use his powers.

Taako finished off his glass.

"Another?"

"Absolutely, yes."

* * *

 

Umbra soared through the atrium, looking for high ground. She was quickly adapting to her new body. Over the last few months she'd managed to convince herself that she would settle into her role as a silent passenger, looking through Taako's eyes and doing what little she could to keep his head above water, but now she had her agency back, she couldn't imagine being that trapped ever again.

She spotted a crossbeam in the ceiling, painted black to blend into the darkness, and landed on it. The mechanisms behind her eyes whirred quietly as she zoomed in and out on the mass of humanoids below her.

Barry. Find Barry.

Where was he? He knew what the plan was. Sure, she was a little late, but she couldn't imagine him giving up after a month or two.

She just had to think about it from his perspective. This wasn't Barry's scene, yet he had been here every night for months. He must have found a way to cope with it.

Umbra considered for another moment, then kicked off, folding her wings to her back as she surrendered to the controlled dive.

* * *

 

"Is this seat taken?"

Taako looked up from his third glass to see the front of a white button-up shirt, then up further still, till he locked eyes with a dark-skinned human with a shoulder-length mane of black deadlocks.

"Uh, no. Knock yourself out."

The human sat down on the stool next to Taako, maneuvering his long cloak out of the way.

It might have been the alcohol hitting him, but Taako felt like he couldn't keep his eyes off the new arrival. He radiated calm, even in the chaos of heart-pounding music and drunken dancing, and the way he was dressed struck a perfect balance between elegance and sophistication with just a hint of old-school goth. Not being one for suits himself, Taako wasn't sure why some guys wore it like a fish wears newspaper, while others looked like they had stepped off the cover of a romance e-book. It might have something to do with the cuffs, or maybe having broad shoulders?

"I'm Kravitz," the man said, offering Taako his hand.

"Taako, you know, from TV," Taako replied as he took it, remembering too late that TV is the last place he would ever want to be recognised from.

"Yeah? That's interesting. I can't say I watch much, myself. Married to my job, as it were. What are you having?"

"Birthday cake cocktails!" Ren butted in, "It's Taako's special recipe. They're my favourite."

"I'll have to try one then, won't I?" Kravitz asked with a chuckle.

"Absolutely!" Ren agreed, bouncing off to make one for him.

Kravitz placed a hand on the bar, quickly going through the same realisation Takko did about its watery nature, then readjusted and leaned back in his chair.

"What is your TV show about?" Kravitz asked.

"Cooking. What brings you out to a place like this?" Taako asked, deflecting the question with one of his own.

"Er, well, I just got off a big case, and my boss, she's the motherly type, she insisted I take some time off before the next one. This isn't exactly my element, but I thought it might be worth a try."

Ren returned to the counter with the sprinkle-filled cocktail. She served it to Kravitz, who's eyes widened a little when he realised that he'd just been handed about 1000 calories in a single glass. He tentatively tried a sip, a slight shudder going through his whole body.

"That… god."

"It's not for everyone," Taako admitted. "I was going for frosted Jell-O shots after a mouthful of ice cream and cake."

"It's good, I just… mhmm… I might need something to balance this out."

Kravitz looked over at the ever-attentive Ren and said, "How about some whisky on the rocks?"

Ren turned back to the bottles and kneeled to pull out a tray full of ice.

"Forgive me for prying, but you seem a little… stressed out," Kravitz said, as he placed the cocktail back down on the bar.

"is it that obvious?" Taako asked with a bitter chuckle. "I guess I really wasted my time doing my make-up."

"No, no. You look gorgeous… Only, not quite all there?"

Taako rolled his eyes at the obvious flattery and downed the last of his second cocktail. Sugar was good. Booze was good. People were bad. Especially well dressed and put-together people, who made you feel like shit in comparison.

"You'd probably look a little rough if you'd had the week I'm having."

Ren passed over the whisky. Even when she was serving Kravitz, her attention was still focused on her idol. Some of her excitement giving way to concern.

Taako felt a pit forming in his stomach. He had to hold it together better, Ren didn't deserve to see her hero shatter right before her eyes. At least when she went home and finally googled his name, it would be an impersonal kind of betrayal.

"It might help if you talk about it. I have the time if you need someone to listen," Kravitz said, lowering his voice to a gentle murmur.

Taako grit his teeth, refusing to look up at Kravitz. Yup, this was precisely what he needed right now. Pity from a random stranger. As if the two idiots he had following him around weren't bad enough.

"I know this is a little exposed. I have a room up on the fourth floor. We could go there and talk," Kravitz offered.

Taako blinked rapidly as the world righted itself. Idiot. He was being picked up. It was past midnight in a seedy club, and he was sitting alone and wearing an outfit that screamed 'I'm DTF or a hooker, figure out which.'

Taako gave Kravitz another once-over, this time paying extra attention to his prominent cheekbones, firm jawline, and broad shoulders.

He could be into this. He could be into this quite easily.

"Yeah, sure," Taako agreed. "That actually doesn't sound awful."

Kravitz blinked at Taako, staggered that he was being taken up on his offer.

"Are you going to finish that?" Taako asked. Pointing to the birthday cake cocktail Kravitz had abandoned.

"…no," Kravitz admitted.

Taako took it by the stem and drained it in one go. Kravitz finished his whisky and paid for his drinks with a tap from his ID bracelet.

"Right. Lead the way," Takko said sliding off his stool and waving goodbye to Ren.

Ren waved back and called, "You're really cute together, I hope it works out!"

* * *

 

Meanwhile, two floors up, nestled in a back corner reserved for couples who wanted to use the cover of darkness to get to know each other better, a robotic dragon collided head-first with a bespectacled man with auburn hair.

Barry gasped, the wind suddenly knocked from his lungs by the impact. His hands flew up to grab the thing that had collided with him and his fingers closed around a long, slender body, covered with scales.

"Barry! Thank fuck!" Umbra exclaimed, as she curled her whole body around his arm and squeezed it tightly. "I almost thought you'd given up waiting."

Barry was utterly speechless as he stared down at the robotic dragon with piercing red eyes. She grabbed his thumb with her tiny claw-tipped paw and nuzzled her face into his palm

"No, I'd never..." Barry insisted once he had found his tongue. "I knew you would find me, eventually."

Barry brought his other hand up to pet the dragon's back. For months, he'd wondered what he would feel when he saw her again. In his worst nightmares, he'd thought that he would feel nothing when they reunited. That he'd see her as nothing but an empty shell, or a crude imitation of the person he loved, but looking into her eyes and seeing her wriggle in pure bliss, Barry knew she was still there.

"It's really you, isn't it?" Barry asked, his voice and hands beginning to tremble he was so overwhelmed with relief. "Lup, I-"

Umbra's whole body went rigid. The light shining behind her eyes dimmed, and the hint of pointed teeth vanished.

"S-shit!" Barry exclaimed, backpaddling as fast as he could. "Umbra... I meant Umbra."

"It's fine," Umbra replied as she detangled herself from Barry and jumped over to the nearest chairback. "This is a wild situation, even for us. Just remember that you can't fuck that up around Taako. He's not coping well with any of this as it is."

"Yeah, of course," Barry replied. One hand moved up to rub at the back of his neck while his gaze fell to the floor. "I'm really sorry."

Umbra nodded and made one last leap back onto Barry's shoulder. "Lup is still out there," Umbra reminded him quietly, leaning close to his ear. "We're going to find her, together."

Barry nodded and asked. "Where's Taako?"

* * *

 

Taako laced his arm in with Kravitz's, letting the human guide him to an elevator bank hidden behind the DJ booth, then up four floors to the very top of the club. The elevator doors opened into a narrow hallway with numbered doors on either side.

They passed a pair of glamorous Tieflings heading in the other direction, all high heels and perfect makeup. Taako caught the eye of one of them, and they shared a communal appraisal.

Maybe that wouldn't be a half-bad career path now the cooking show thing had imploded. At least escorting, he probably wouldn't kill anybody.

Kravitz opened the door to the room on the far end, and Taako went in ahead of him. Inside, there was a huge glass window that looked out on the atrium and a variety of luxury furniture, including a leather sectional sofa, and (just in case you might have any misconceptions about what these rooms were usually for) a silver stripper pole.

Taako flounced over to the sofa, sat down, and crossed his legs. There was a bucket full of ice on the coffee table with a sizable bottle of champagne resting inside it.

Taako took it by the stem and loosen the cork with a flick of his wrist. It gave a satisfying pop as it burst open and Taako quickly turned it around and poured the golden liquid into two of the tall glasses that were gathered around it.

Kravitz came over, and Taako pressed one of the two glasses into his hand.

"Thanks," Kravitz said with a slight nod of his head.

Takko leaned back against the plush leather and picked up his own glass.

"Cheers," Taako deadpanned, clinking their glasses together before downing his.

Kravitz frowned and placed his glass down on the table, untouched.

"So Taako, there's-" he began, only to be cut off before he could get in another word.

"Wait, wait, let me guess, you've got a whole spiel you're about to get into?"

"Uh, y-yes? How did you?"

"Mmhmm, listen, how about we skip past all that? You want to get your dick wet, and I need to feel like I'm not a huge piece of rotting garbage for five minutes. Let's just do this."

That said, Taako returned his glass to the table, stood up, and dropped himself back down into Kravitz's lap.

Taako laced his arms around Kravitz's neck and caught his lips with his own, easing him into a kiss.

Kravitz stiffened up, caught off-guard after having his entire plan blown right past. Taako felt the smallest pang of guilt at that. After all, he had no idea what this guy's experience level was and judging by the fact Kravitz hadn't touched any part of his body yet, he probably didn't know what to do with his hands.

Taako rocked his hips just a little, grinding his backside down against Kravitz's lap.

That absolutely got his attention. Kravitz grabbed Taako's hips, and his fingertips slipped under the hem of Taako's leggings.

Taako tilted his head to the side, parting his lips to offer an open-mouthed kiss, but Kravitz didn't take him up on it. Taako tried not to feel to offended by that, not everyone liked making out with complete strangers.

Still, if they weren't going to make out, he might as well get on with the main event. Taako moved his hands to Kravitz's shoulders and pushed against him until they were both laying on the sofa. That accomplished, Taako straitened up, rested his hat on the backrest of the couch and reached down to start unbuttoning the front of Kravitz's pants.

* * *

 

Umbra kicked off from Barry's shoulder and flew a quick circle around the bar, scanning the crowd. She landed on the empty stool Taako had been sitting in, but she couldn't see any trace of her brother.

She hopped to the water-covered countertop, startling the bartender cleaning out glasses in the sink.

"Have you seen an elf with blond hair, blue eyes, and wearing a pointy hat?!" Umbra half asked, half demanded.

The dark elf stared at her. One arm moving up to cover her chest as if she were worried Umbra would take a lunge at her.

Barry reached the countertop, slightly out of breath from having to chase after Umbra.

"Sorry! She's with me! I mean, she's mine, my robot," Barry explained, picking Umbra up and returning her to his shoulder. "We're looking for an elf named Taako? Last time we saw him, he was right here."

The elf frowned at Barry and placed her glasses down. "Taako was here, but he left a little while ago with someone."

Umbra buried her face in the collar of Barry's dark red cloak. "I should have known not to leave him alone. God damn it, Taako."

"Did they say where they were going?" Barry asked.

The bartender frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "No. They didn't. And just so you know, we have a strict policy against paparazzi in this club. If you get caught trying to take pictures or stalking our VIP guests, we'll throw you right out."

Barry opened his mouth to deny the accusation but was distracted by Umbra tugging on his ear. "We don't have time to argue."

Barry nodded and stepped away from the bar, heading back towards the dancefloor.

"He can't be far. If he were, you would have lost your connection," Barry said.

Umbra crawled down Barry's arm, and he folded them together to cradle her to his chest.

"It could still break any second. We can't keep looking blind. I need to go and find out where he is."

Barry swallowed. "Y-yeah… do it."

"I'll be right back," Umbra reassured him. She blinked, and the bright red colour in her eyes began to fade into a light grey. The constant flicking of her tail and twitching of her ears stilled, leaving only default programming waiting for instructions.

Barry slunk back towards the nearest wall and pressed his shoulders up against it. He closed his eyes and focused on his breath, counting each exhale to keep his mind occupied with something besides the fact that the lifeless shell he was holding might stay that way for good.

* * *

 

Kravitz caught Taako's wrists before he could finish undoing the last button. He pulled Taako's hands away, holding them up over his head. Taako's baby blue eyes flashed bright red, a telltale sign that they weren't natural.

Kravitz was breathing heavily, and his calm demeanor had flown out the window.

"Sorry, did you want to be on top?" Taako asked, glancing up at his tightly held wrists.

"What? No!" Kravitz insisted, as he pulled himself back up into a partial sitting position. "Look, I realise in hindsight how asking you to come up here with me would have given you the impression that I…" Kravitz trailed off. At a loss for how to phrase it, he abandoned that thought entirely. "I really did just want to talk."

"We can talk after," Taako said with a shrug. He rocked his hips again, his grin widening when he heard Kravitz groan in response. Taako took his hands back with no resistance from Kravitz and tugged open the first few buttons on his white dress shirt. Taako leaned down and kissed Kravitz's collarbone, eliciting a sharp breath and a few short syllables in Mandarin. Taako's grasp of the language was a little rusty, but it was something vulgar about mother birds.

Taako stripped off his long-sleeve shirt. It wasn't hiding much between the skin-tight fabric and the cutouts, but Kravitz's eyes widened as his gaze swept from Taako's delicate frame to the low hemline on his leggings and the bit of hipbone showing over it.

Taako gently took one of Kravitz's hands and pressed it against his chest, inviting Kravitz to touch him.

"Taako, I-"

A blinding flash of light and ear-shattering bang erupted from the other side of the room. The ensuing shockwave blew out the window behind the sofa and sent a shower of glass down onto the crowded dance floor. Frantic screaming filled the air, and the omnipresent music came to an abrupt halt.

Kravitz was the first to recover. He stood, dumping a shell-shocked and half-naked Taako onto the floor.

Kravitz pulled a six-inch-tall black cylinder from a holster on his hip and held it out perpendicular to his body. Both ends shot out, forming a long black staff with gold lights dotted along its length. The side he was holding upright flashed purple, and a long, curved blade extended from it.

He brandished the fully formed scythe, his eyes fixed on the doorway.

Through the slowly dissipating dust cloud, four people entered the room. At the head of the group were two high elves.

The one on the left had bright neon-pink hair piled into a curly updo and was wearing platform boots and a leather jacket that hugged her body. While the one on the right had straight neon-green hair trailing down past his hips and was wearing stiletto heels and a trench coat with the tail cut in a sharp triangle, favouring the right hip.

The one with pink hair turned and shouted at a sheepish looking goblin lurking behind her, wearing a helmet and a bulletproof vest.

"I said to get the door open, not blow it to hell!"

The goblin shuffled his feet and tried to look remorseful, but the fact he was clutching a serrated combat knife made it a hard sell.

"Sorry, mistress. I misjudged."

The elf with green hair flashed a smile full of glimmering white teeth. "Oh, don't be so hard on him, darling. It made for quite the entrance."

Pink hair shot him a look that seemed to say 'I always make an amazing entrance' then turned her attention to the scythe-wielding human and his unbuttoned shirt and pants.

"It seems as if we've interrupted something. Funny, I thought the Raven Queen would have taught you better than to play with your food."

Kravitz didn't move a muscle or relax his stance, not even to fix his clothing.

"Well **, I** certainly don't blame him," Green hair chimed in, taking a few meaningful steps around Kravitz to get a better look at the elf sitting on the floor in nothing but his bright accessories and skin-tight leggings.

"Oh. My. God!" He exclaimed, involuntary echoing Ren's sentiment and managing to just beat out earlier that night for the worst possible time and place Taako had ever been recognised.

Green hair pointed directly at him. "Oh, Lydia, Look! It's Taako, from Sizzle It Up with Taako!"

He strode towards Taako until Kravitz intercepted by placing himself (and more importantly, his blade) in-between. Green hair rolled his eyes but didn't advance any further. He waved at Takko, as if from the other side a velvet rope.

"It's so wonderful to meet you! I'm Edward, and this is my darling little sister, Lydia!

"He's who from what?" Lydia asked

"It's a cooking show! Well, it **was** a cooking show."

"Since when do you watch cooking shows?"

"I don't! Unless the host tries to enact a mass murder-suicide with his entire studio audience on live TV!"

Taako wrapped her arms around his middle. His heart was pounding in his chest, and he was struggling just to keep breathing. None of what was going on around him felt real. Like everyone else was an actor playing out a scene from a movie he had somehow gotten trapped in.

Lydia nodded, "Classic bionic behavior. Someone must have been testing to see how charismatic they could make one. Pretty Dumb idea to let it handle food. Should have gone with a pop-star or fashion icon."

Edward kneeled to Taako's level, frowning in fake sympathy.

"Is that what happened, Taako? Did you find out you weren't a real boy and throw a tantrum? Naughty thing. I guess this saves us the trouble of finding out who put a bounty on you. I'm sure Necron will pay out the nose to have their prototype entertainment android back."

"Speaking of," Lydia added, finally getting them off the sidetrack her brother had pulled them along for, "Why don't you just hand him over? You're outnumbered and out of your depth."

Kravitz didn't allow Lydia to draw his attention away from her brother.

"I accepted this contract on behalf of the Raven Queen. It will be fulfilled."

Lydia rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers, electricity crackled between them, arching from knuckle to knuckle.

"Figures. What does that bitch do to make her reapers so loyal? I'm almost getting tired of killing you all."

Lydia nodded to Edward, and faster than blinking, he pulled a pair of blades from his coat.

Kravitz was ready for him. Plasma clashed with plasma, sparks shooting out from where the blades met.

Lydia shot a lightning bolt at Kravitz. He ducked just in time. The electricity pealed out the broken window and struck the lighting rig. The flash from the resulting explosion temporarily blinded everyone in the room.

Taako frantically rubbed at his eyes and blinked rapidly. A green blob was slowly advancing towards him, edging around the black blotch that was probably Kravitz.

Taako blinked a few more times and the green resolved into the well-armed goblin that had taken responsibility for blowing the door off its hinges. Taako scooted away from him, only to collide into the knees of the orc who had been skulking unnoticed behind Lydia.

The orc grabbed Taako under his arms and pulled him to his feet. The orc leaned in, his hot breath on the back of Taako's neck sending a shudder of revulsion down his spine.

"Hey there, little bionic. Come quietly and maybe we won't need to tear your arms and legs off."

A flare of anger rose inside Taako's chest, the raw and oddly alien emotion driving down the sickening anxiety.

_'Give me control.'_

Taako resisted. Not sure if he should be more frightened of the voice in his head or the external threats.

The orc started edging back toward the door, not bothered at all by the desperate wriggling of the elf in his arms.

_'They're going to hurt you. They're going to hand you over to Necron. I can stop them.'_

"Who are you? What do you want?"

The Orc ignored Taako's questions as did the voice in his head.

_'We don't have time for this, Coco. Let me fight!'_

The familiar nickname penetrated the layers of mindless panic. Taako swallowed and gave into the force pulling him down. His whole body went limp, as if in a dead faint. The orc snorted and let go of one of their arms to hoist them up over his shoulder.

The moment the elf's arm was free, they snapped back to life, twisted, and drove a knee up into the orc's crotch.

the orc screamed and stumbled backwards, both hands covering the sensitive area.

The elf sprang forward, landing with as much distance between the orc and the goblin as possible.

Blood red eyes glared at one, then the other.

"Take one step closer, and I'll fucking roast both of you!"

Fire sprang to their fingertips, showing that they could very easily follow through on that threat.

Umbra bared her teeth, not as pointy as the ones in her dragon form, but familiar all the same.

* * *

 

Barry heard the explosion, along with everyone else in the club. Panic set in, and with no apparent source of danger, people ran in every direction.

Barry clutched the unresponsive Dragon-robot to his chest, bracing himself against the tide. He'd been close enough to the dance floor to see the glass fall and knew he needed to get to the top floor.

He fought against the crowd, his focus split between trying to make progress while not getting trampled underfoot.

Barry found a back staircase, people were pushing and shoving in a rush to get out the emergency exit. He somehow managed to dodge through the melee and make it up the first few steps.

If anyone noticed him going in the wrong direction, they didn't care enough to do anything about it.

Barry sprinted up the abandoned stairwell, jostling the robot in his arms. It beeped softly, protesting the rough treatment.

As he crossed the third-floor landing, Barry heard the sound of heavy footfalls pounding up the stairwell behind him. He turned to see a mountain of a man with bright red hair chasing after him and wielding a massive battle-axe. Barry tried to get out of the way, backing towards a corner of the landing. Instead of flying past him, the man stopped two steps down and pointed an accusatory finger at Barry.

"Who are you and what did you do to Umbra?!"

Barry's mouth fell open. He didn't even know where to begin answering that question. The man waited for a response. When it became clear that one was not forthcoming, he took a few steps closer, brandishing his axe.

A dwarf appeared around the bend in the stairwell. He had a thick mane of greying hair, a beard full of flowers, and looked about 100 years too old to be running up staircases.

He grabbed the wrist of the redhead and stammered through gasps for air. "H-hey there, hold on. Did… Didn't the dragon say we were looking for some nerdy guy?"

Redhead looked Barry up and down and asked, "You're Barry Bluejeans?"

He nodded, not wanting to disagree even slightly with the mountain man.

The man nodded and pointed at himself then the dwarf. "Magnus, Merle. We're friends of Taako's. Where is he?"

Barry shook his head, trying to take the flood of information in stride.

"I-I don't know. Umbra went to look for him, but she hasn't come back. I thought I'd follow the explosion."

"Good plan," Magnus agreed, turning and continuing his hike up the stairs.

Barry blinked at Merle. Merle heaved a deep sigh and followed his companion, putting most of his weight on the railing as he half pulled himself up the stairs.

Barry held the dragon up, but the blank look it gave him wasn't comforting.

* * *

 

Umbra winced, silently apologising to her brother for getting blood on his high heeled boots. Mess or no, at least they were down two goons. Umbra turned her eye towards the door and the three combatants that were blocking it.

Kravitz was still holding his own, but with two against one, he didn't have a chance to strike back. If she didn't intervene, fatigue would set in, and he'd make a mistake that would cost him dearly.

Umbra chafed at the idea of fighting beside a man who, as far as she could figure, was both in the pocket of Necron and had decided he should get a taste of the 'merchandise' before handing Taako over. If she waited, though, she ran the risk of being left alone against Lydia and Edward once they finished with Kravitz.

Fortunately, Umbra was saved from having to make a choice when Magnus, axe in hand, blustered into the tiny room, literally knocking over the three combatants in his rush to involve himself.

Umbra didn't need any more invitation than that. She took a running leap and dove toward Magnus, tucking forward and rolling as she hit the floor and popping back up just behind his shoulder.

She turned to see Barry and Merle hustling down the hallway. She waved them over and pointed towards the room. Catching her meaning, Barry reached up and dumped the robot dragon body into the hood of his cloak, then summoned a ball of twisting black energy to his fingertips. Following Barry's lead, Merle grabbed his hand-axe from his hip, and they fell into line beside Umbra in the narrow hallway.

"Who's got back up now, assholes?" Umbra crowed, pulling herself up using Magnus's shoulder.

Lydia was the first to regain her footing and assess the drastically changed situation. She looked to her subordinates, but once she realised they were out of commission, she dismissed them.

"No need to gloat, gorgeous. I can see when I've been outplayed… or at least out-lucked," Lydia admitted. She reached out a hand to her brother and pulled him to his feet.

Edward scowled and cast a hungry gaze over at his quarry, his expression reminiscent of a dog refusing to let go of a bone. He didn't even seem to register the others surrounding Umbra.

"You have an impressive number of allies for a mass-murdering machine," Lydia commented dryly. "When we capture you, you'll have to tell me what lies you spun to win them over."

Edward snickered, snapping himself out of his laser focus. "I can't imagine he can afford to pay them, at least not after compensating the family of that girl in the front row."

Umbra shrugged. Taako was taking a nap at the moment, so their barbs fell on uncaring ears. She ducked under Magnus's arm and launched a warning bolt of fire at the feet of the elven siblings.

"I'm going to give you… mmm, about 15 seconds to piss off," Umbra decided.

Lydia tossed her pink hair and turned on her heal. She stopped beside the fallen orc, and, without a single trace if effort, picked him up and slung him over her shoulders. He was near twice her size, which made her look an awful lot like an ant carrying a skittle.

Edward scooped the goblin up under an arm, which was a lot less impressive, and followed her lead. The pair ignored the door entirely in favour of leaping out the broken window, a three-story drop onto the dancefloor notwithstanding.

"Uhh, are they going to be okay?" Magnus asked.

Umbra shrugged and pivoted her attention onto Kravitz, who had stood by silently for the proceedings.

"What about you? Want to try four-on-one?"

Kravitz shook his head. He dropped the blade of his scythe to the floor and relaxed his combat stance.

"This night has not gone according to plan at all," Kravitz said, breathing a heavy sigh. Now that the imminent peril had passed, he finally remembered his unbuttoned shirt and pants and hurriedly set about fixing it.

"Taako. I realise it might be hard to believe after all this, but quite honestly, I only wanted to speak with you," Kravitz explained.

Umbra rolled her eyes so hard she almost made herself dizzy. "Pfft, maybe you should have tried that line before spouting off all that shit about fulfilling your contract for the Raven Queen. I know what you are, Reaper, and your barking up the wrong tree."

Kravitz finished flattening out his collar. He seemed to be having a little difficulty looking directly at Umbra's borrowed body, Taako's body. If it was out of guilt for what he had almost done, Umbra figured it was too little, too late.

"That's what they all say. If you're sure, then let me do the test," Kravitz insisted.

Magnus looked over his shoulder at Merle and Barry, and hiss-whispered.

"What test?"

Merle shrugged, and Barry pursed his lips tightly.

"No one owes you anything reaper," Umbra growled, "Including the right to leave here alive."

She prepared another spell, aiming right for Kravitz's chest.

"Uh, does anyone else hear that?"

Merle's question caught the whole party off-guard, and in the ensuing silence, everyone heard the wailing sirens getting closer and louder.

"We should go," Umbra decided. Agreeing with her entirely. Barry, Merle and Magnus backed out further into the hallway.

Before she turned and ran, Umbra adjusted her aim and let loose. The ball of fire hit the floor in front of Kravitz and ignited the floorboards, cutting off any attempt he might make to follow them.

Magnus, despite being the furthest from the stairwell, managed to overtake the others and lead the retreat.

The crush of people at the bottom of the stairs had cleared out in the interim, and the exit door hung open on partially broken hinges.

The alleyway beyond was too narrow to drive through, but several police cars were parked at the end with lights and sirens blazing. High-powered flashlight beams washed away any possible shadows to hide in.

"Stop right there!" One of the officers yelled, his flashlight freezing on the small party.

Shielding her eyes with her hand, Umbra shot a handful of fire at a pile of trash between them and the officers. Smoke and flame lit up the alleyway, brighter than even the flashlights.

"This way!" She ordered, grabbing Barry's wrist with one hand, Magnus's arm with the other, and hoping Merle could keep up. She dragged them both deeper into the concrete maze. The alleyways were too narrow to show up on any GPS, but in another life and bearing a different name, Umbra had stalked these streets while making her way to/from rendezvous with Barry when they couldn't afford to be seen leaving work together.

She took a hard-right turn then a left, making their progress as challenging to follow as possible without doubling back or losing distance.

At last, their mad flight came to an end when the corridors of buildings dropped off, and they found themselves standing at the edge of the north-block drainage canal.

It hadn't rained in a few days, leaving the ten-foot-deep channel with only a scant inch of dark, foul-smelling water in its belly.

The nearest bridge was another half mile up-stream. Umbra briefly considered it, but after looking around at her exhausted allies, she decided against it. Barry was carrying her robotic body in his arms again and was clutching it to his heaving chest. As soon as they had stopped moving, Merle had sat down on the nearest curb. Even Magnus was looking a little worse for wear and needed a minute to collect himself.

He was looking straight at Umbra while he caught his breath. As soon as he could string three words together, he pointed at her and asked, "Who the hell are you, and what did you do to Taako?"

Umbra blinked back at him. True, she hadn't been trying to act like her brother, and Magnus had seen her take over before, but she hadn't expected him to clock the fact that she was a separate being without having to explain it to him.

"It's Umbra,"

She pointed to herself than to the robotic body Barry was holding. "And Taako's fine. He's still in here, just not awake, exactly."

Merle glanced up at her and frowned. Now she was forced to say it out-loud, Umbra realised it sounded kind of bad. Like she was a parasite that was repressing the will of her host.

"Guys, things were really nasty before you showed up," Umbra explained, "First there was that Reaper creep who was trying to take advantage. Then more bounty hunters showed up, and one of them was bringing up some real personal shit. Taako was starting to panic. You know he doesn't know how to use his augmentations. I couldn't let him get caught."

"So, you just took over his body?" Magnus asked, raising both ginger eyebrows.

Umbra snorted, but none of the others seemed to think that the accusation was funny. Even Barry was digging the toe of his running shoe into the thick layer of dirt on the pavement.

"It's just for a little while. Until we're safe," Umbra insisted.

"We seem pretty safe now," Magnus said, gesturing to the empty streets around them.

Umbra shook her head. "Not yet. Barry has a hideout near here. As soon as we…"

Umbra stopped mid-sentence, her attention narrowing in on something just over Magnus's shoulder. Umbra activated the thermal capabilities of her optics. The cold streets around them fell into even darker shadow, except for the sharp yellow outline of a man lurking at the end of the alleyway they had just excited.

"Stop following us!" Umbra screamed, making all three of her companions jump.

Kravitz melted out of the shadows, approaching the small group with such poise and elegance you would think he was crossing the floor at a ballroom instead of emerging out of an alleyway. The hem of his black cloak tailed along behind him, making his presence seem more substantial than he really was.

He had both hands held to his side, both empty. Responding in-kind, Umbra snuffed out her own flames but kept the energy at her fingertips.

"Didn't the Raven Queen ever tell you that no means no?" Umbra asked. Her eyes stayed locked on him, maintaining her distance while walking a half circle around Kravitz, facing him down in the middle of the street while the others stood off to the side.

"If no is the answer, I will accept it. But you haven't heard me out yet," Kravitz replied.

"Fine. Talk."

"I'd much rather speak to Taako. I'm given to understand that you aren't him."

Umbra grit her teeth. He must have been listening. She shot a glare at Magnus. If they were going to keep working together, she would have to make him understand that there were always prying ears and eyes around in this city.

"Bullshit. You're trying to trick me into letting my guard down. Just like you tried to get Taako drunk so he'd fuck you."

Kravitz winced. "That… That's a very uncharitable summary of events. Perhaps, if we could hear Taako's opinion on the matter?"

Umbra's fingers curled up into fists.

"This is getting us nowhere."

Umbra had only one prime directive. So profoundly integrated into her programming it was literally the first thought she'd had as an independent being.

Protect Taako.

Text boxes flashed up on the corners of Umbra's vision, warning about a sudden spike in power draw. She dismissed them and held out both hands, her fingers spread. There were no flashes or sparks this time, but the palms of her hands and wrists burned like she was holding them over a cook-top. Too much energy stored in too little space.

"Leave or die."

Umbra held for a moment, giving him one last chance. He probably had no idea what she was capable of. What **they** were capable of. Only Barry and Nikolai had seen the limits of the Atlas Procedure.

She didn't care. She'd burn this whole city down if that's what it took.

Umbra braced herself and began to ease off the trigger.

"No!"

Umbra didn't have time to realise the scream came from her mouth. The image of Kravitz blurred as her eyes filled with tears and control was suddenly wrenched away from her.

Taako, in full possession of his body, did the only thing he could think of. He threw his arms up towards the sky and let go.

A beam of scorching energy shot like a flare from a gun. Three feet thick and arching up into the sky like the beam of a searchlight. It nearly hit a passing helicopter, forcing it into a spiral plunge toward the city reservoir.

The backlash knocked Taako prone, his head hit the pavement with a sickening crack. Warm liquid trickled down the back of his neck.

"Taako!"

At the sound of his name, Taako opened his eyes and saw two blurry blue dragons with matching red eyes pawing at his cheek.

Umbra leaned in when she saw him looking at her, but Taako didn't seem to register that she was even there.

Barry knelt at Taako's side. He pulled Umbra away from him and tucked her into the hood of his robe and murmured, "You've done enough for now." Umbra dug her claws into his shoulder, watching silently.

"Taako, try to follow my finger with your eyes, okay?" Barry ordered.

He held up his index finger and moved it in small circles in front of Taako's face, but his eyes remained fixed ahead.

Barry tried again, moving his hand like he was going to punch Taako in the face. Taako flinched, but his eyes didn't move.

Merle joined Barry at Taako's other side and asked, "Hey buddy, can you hear us? Any indication would be useful. Blink a lot? Hold up a hand, or something?"

No response.

"He's concussed," Merle concluded, and Barry nodded in agreement.

Barry stood and waved Magnus over.

"We need to get back to my place now. I have first aid supplies."

Magnus nodded and stooped down to pick Taako up.

"Try to keep his head as still as possible," Merle suggested.

"I assume you're coming with?" Barry asked a slightly shell-shocked Kravitz. Kravitz was alternating between concern for Taako's safety and staring up into the sky and trying to remember exactly how large that column of fire had been.

Kravitz snapped out of his revelry and nodded.

Umbra's claws dug deeper into Barry's shoulder. He reached up and stroked her head.

"There's been enough collateral damage for one night," Barry insisted, then in a slightly quieter tone added, "we can always kill him later."


	5. Dust

"Miss Lup? The um… The Reaper is here to see you."

Lup nodded to her secretary. "Send him in."

"Yes, Ma'am."

He vanished back around the wall of frosted glass, leaving her alone in the meeting room.

Lup turned back to her tablet. While she didn't need to hold it to scroll through the continually updating feed of data, it was nice to have something to throw at the nearest wall when she hit another inevitable setback.

The information dancing across the screen was streamed directly from a drone swarm currently combing the city streets. They hovered around crowded areas, scanning the faces of everyone around them and comparing it to a carefully compiled database of footage. With over 200 hours of recorded live streams to draw from, the drones should have been perfectly capable of spotting Taako from half a mile away. Yet, here she was months later with only one confirmed sighting to show for it.

Lup's fingers tightened around the screen she was holding, bending it a little in her absent frustration.

If only she had been around when they had that sighting. To make it that much worse, Lup couldn't even remember what she had been doing that day.

There were bits and pieces. Nikolai returning with his enforcers in tow. Her questions brushed aside. Slowly realizing Taako wasn't with them. Nikolai insisting that something had changed and that they needed to reevaluate the plans. She didn't take that well. She'd screamed at him and then…

Lup winced. Her head suddenly hurt, and there was a soft buzz in her ears.

The sliding glass door of the meeting room opened. Lup glanced up. The pain and the noise vanished the moment she stopped thinking about it.

Lup inclined her head towards the newcomer and gestured to a white pod chair across the glass coffee table.

The Reaper returned her nod with a short bow and sat down. He sunk down further into the plush upholstery than he probably would have liked, but that was precisely why Lup had picked this room.

It was quite the trick for a five-foot-tall, willowy elf to command the high ground in a business negotiation… unless the human she was squaring off against was trapped in a plush egg on a stick.

She looked the Reaper up and down. He was dressed exactly how you would expect. Black business formal with hits of the eccentric in the ruffles in his collar and gold skulls on his cufflinks.

Lup had to wonder if he dressed for the role, or if the role was that deeply ingrained into him. For Lup's part, she couldn't wait to strip off her stiff suit-dress with poufy sleeves and slide into her usual black jumpsuit.

"Jiǔyǎng" Lup said, using a Mandarin greeting.

"And you as well," the Reaper replied.

"I've heard quite a lot about you, Kravitz. Your track record is very impressive."

"Thank you, but to whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?"

"Lup."

"Just Lup?

"I don't need a fancy title or a job description. I get shit done that needs doing, like you do."

"I see. Then I suppose we should get to it. Who is my target?"

Lup pursed her lips. Preparing for the tightrope she was about to walk.

The Raven Queen wasn't an entity that could be motivated by money, power, technology, or even information. To get her to send her best, Lup needed to emphasise the possible danger to public safety and run the risk that the Reaper she was given might disobey orders and neutralise the threat.

Not everyone could get away with directly disobeying the wishes of a corporation as powerful as Necron, but the Raven Queen was decidedly not everyone.

This was her only chance to plead her case or make threats, whatever seemed like it would work.

She cleared the map data on her tablet and brought up the dossier she'd prepared. A bevvy of information popped up, neatly organised under categorised subheadings.

It hurt her to see it all laid out like that. Her beloved sibling boiled down to a handful of physical features and pictures.

Lup handed the tablet over, schooling her expression. If breaking out in tears would help her case, she would happily fill a river, but first, she needed to know if there was any sympathy to be appealed to.

"His name is Taako, he's my twin brother," Lup explained, folding her hands tightly in her lap.

Kravitz looked up, his eyebrows knitting in confusion. Lup smiled very faintly, acknowledging the unusual statement with a nod. To him it must sound like she was insisting a microwave had an aunt, or a toaster had a child. Bionics could be made with similar parts and features, but that didn't usually come with any shared sense of kinship.

"It was a limited production run," Lup explained. "There's only two like us. We share constructed memories, abilities, cognitive function, everything."

Kravitz slid his fingertip across the tablet, searching through pages and pages of information.

"That's… unconventional."

Lup shrugged, "We were built to test if having a close companion would delay ethical degradation."

That got Kravitz's attention. He placed the tablet on his lap and leaned forward in his pod-like seat.

"Have you seen any success?"

"Some. But having the pair of us forcibly separated was not part of the experiment."

Lup stood from her seat and wandered over to the huge glass window overlooking the compound. A thirty-foot-tall concrete wall blocked off the whole area. It marked where the city ended, and the corporate territory began. The compound took up only three side-by-side city blocks, but it had the jurisdictional freedom of an independent state.

Half a block down from HQ tower, the charred remains of the cybernetic research labs had given way to foundations laid for the new building.

"My brother didn't run away, he was kidnapped," Lup explained, turning her back to the window.

Kravitz tilted his head to the side. He was too polite to question her directly, but she could sense his doubt.

"Is it really that unlikely?" Lup asked. "We're valuable technology."

"Of course. But you understand, I'm not usually called in for kidnapping cases."

"This isn't a usual kidnapping case. There's no ransom and the kidnappers aren't affiliated with any rival corporations. Whoever abducted my brother can't have the resources to reverse engineer him and isn't out for monetary gain."

"You think they intend to use him?"

"I think that if he's used, the damage will be astronomical."

Lup returned to the coffee table and took the tablet back from Kravitz. She swiped through the pages until she found the pictures of a giant ball of brilliant white light suspended in a glass tube.

"Let me draw your attention to something," Lup prompted, handing the tablet back. "This is a piece of cutting-edge technology we're developing. Internally, we call it the 'Light of Creation'. For clarity's sake let's pretend that it's a tiny nuclear reactor. A fragment of it serves as Taako's primary power source, just as it does for me. I assume you're aware of what happens when an extremely volatile power source is misused?"

Lup trailed off, leaving the implications to hover between them.

Kravitz frowned. "You realise I'll be reporting this breach of the Nemesis accord?"

Lup shrugged. Sure, building weapons of mass destruction was illegal, but so was half of what any mega-corp did.

"That's between Necron and the council. I don't care as long as it gets my brother back."

Lup took a deep breath and knelt on the carpet, seceding the height advantage she'd been working so hard to maintain. She placed a hand gingerly on Kravitz's forearm. He met her eyes, and Lup finally let the desperate ache that lingered in the pit of her stomach show on her face.

"Kravitz, I've heard about more than just your track record. Word among the Reapers is that you always give your target a chance to come quietly. That's all I want. Taako is lost out there, without his support network, without me. I know he would want to come home if he could."

Kravitz tilted his head back and said, "It seems as if you'd much rather be out there finding him yourself."

Lup's expression shuttered over, and she got back on her feet.

"Necron can't risk losing both of us. You should count yourself lucky that you don't have two extremely dangerous bionics to chase down."

Lup turned her back to him and accessed her internal net connection. "I've sent you a copy of the dossier. It has everything we know in it. Including a physical description of two suspects who were spotted with him a few weeks ago. If I were you, I'd start there."

Lup returned to the window. The stars were surprisingly bright this evening. Perhaps part of the city was experiencing a blackout and cutting the light pollution.

"Bring Taako back in one piece, Kravitz. For my sake, and everyone else's. If something were to happen to him… Well, I don't know what I might do."

Lup held one hand up and summoned a small flicker of fire that wove itself through her fingertips.

* * *

 

Barry heaved a deep sigh once Kravitz had finished speaking. It was well past midnight, and the house was dead silent, aside from the gentle hum of electricity that pervaded every part of the city.

Barry's much-lauded hideout had turned out to be a three-story Victorian-style manor, complete with a turret, that had been quietly minding its own business for almost three hundred years while the landscape around it changed dramatically. The Bluejeans family, through judicious effort and no little amount of stubbornness, had managed to hold onto the house and the land, despite the machinations of developers and speculators, hungry for every square inch that could be used to build high-rises.

Sometime shortly before Barry was born, the saga had ended abruptly when a shopping mall had been built around the house. The five-story-tall monolith swooped around the small plot of land the house occupied, and the gap was papered over with an ad for cola.

While this had been extremely upsetting for Gregor and Marlena, by the time Barry had inherited the house, he'd appreciated having access to a space that, for all intense in purposes, was utterly invisible.

He'd modified most of the interior, especially the dining room, which was now pulling double duty as an operations hub. Screens lined the walls, each tuned to a different news broadcast or information feed, and the sturdy mahogany table was surrounded with desk chairs and had a maximum security holo-communications rig in the centre.

Kravitz and Barry were sitting one place away from one another. Speaking quietly, so they didn't wake any of the others. Umbra sat on the table between them, her scaly tail wrapped around her body.

"You don't seem surprised," Kravitz observed.

Barry shook his head. "I wish I was."

Umbra stared down at her paws. "Kozlov got everything he wanted. That's why he let Taako go. He knows Lup will find us eventually. This is all a sick game for him."

Barry reached over and gently scratched under her chin until she looked up at him.

"He's only got half of what he wanted," Barry insisted, "and if he thinks it's a game, then he's more likely to underestimate us."

Kravitz cleared his throat, reminding the pair of them that he was still in the room, and had more to say.

"There something else you should know. Shortly after our meeting, I received a message from Lup. She indicated that I had a week to complete the recovery before she made Taako's disappearance public. She intends to offer a half a billion in cash or gold to anyone who can retrieve her brother unharmed."

Barry dropped his hand, and Umbra sat up straight. That was a ludicrous amount of money, especially for a missing person.

"The two I fought in the club? The Raven Queen is aware of them. They're vultures who follow Reapers and try to snatch bounties that they don't have the connections to pick up. If Necron makes this offer public, then there will be hundreds more like them, and they'll know what they're looking for."

"How many days do we have left?" Barry asked.

"Four."

Umbra and Barry shifted uncomfortably, they didn't even have a solid plan yet, never mind one that could be enacted that quickly.

"Could you tell her you need more time?" Umbra asked.

"I could try." Kravitz admitted, "But in exchange, I'd like a chance to confirm your side of the story."

The temperature in the room dropped several degrees.

"Did you forget the part where Taako's still concussed?" Umbra asked, her tone painfully polite.  
"He's not up for dealing with tests."

Since the scorching ray incident, Umbra and Kravitz and been surprisingly civil with one another, but there was always enough passive aggression lingering under the surface to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool.

"Try to look at this from my perspective," Kravitz insisted. "I can't ignore the possibility that you've concocted all of this as an excuse."

"You saw him bleeding. How is that not enough proof? Maybe if you pulled your head out of your ass, you'd notice details like that."

Kravitz took the insult with only a slight deepening of his frown. "I also saw how much of that injury was self-inflicted. Or inflicted by you 'borrowing' Taako's body. That whole thing could have been staged."

Umbra bared her teeth in a snarl, but Kravitz elected to ignore her.

"Reapers don't make mistakes. I'll do everything in my power to make the process as gentle as possible. But I can't go back to the Raven Queen and tell her that I just had a 'feeling' that my target wasn't a biotic."

"That makes perfect sense to me…"

Everyone in the room turned to see Taako leaning against the doorframe. His long hair was thoroughly tangled and frizzed from a full 36 hours spent laying in bed and he was wearing an oversized button up shirt as a nightgown. The loose fabric highlighted how sickeningly thin he still was after the months of transmutation-related crash dieting.

Taako glided into the room. His gaze fixed on Kravitz, ignoring everyone else. He pulled out a chair beside Kravitz and sat down. "Hey Bones, I've been meaning to ask, what does a Reaper, like, do?"

Struck by the sudden change in the flow of conversation, Kravitz's mouth hung partially open before he responded.

"We... Uh. We track down and neutralise rogue artificial intelligence."

Taako nodded and pointed a finger in Umbra's direction.

"You could start with that one over there. She's a real pain in the ass."

Umbra sat up, her wings shuddering in their folded position.

"I'm not permitted to hunt AI outside of the contracts I've been given," Kravitz explained.

Taako shrugged and turned a cold shoulder to the robot dragon.

"What kind of test is it anyway? I don't have to do math, right? Cuz, I'm absolutely going to fail that.

"Um, no. No math. It's more of a spiritual kind of test. Something that a machine won't be able to replicate. I'm afraid I can't give you more detail than that. It's something of a carefully guarded secret."

Taako nodded, it made about as much sense as anything else that had happened to him recently.

"What if we forget the test, and you can just take me to my sister?" Taako asked.

Umbra let out a cry of distress. Barry winced and murmured "Taako, please."

Taako turned on the pair of them. "Hold on, is there something you want to say to me, Barold? Maybe about who the fuck you are and how you knew Lup?"

Barry avoided Taako's eyes. "We were co-workers. We developed the Atlas procedure together. What more is there to say?"

"How about starting with why you knew Lup's plans and I didn't?"

"Lup was trying to protect you. She didn't want you to throw your life away because of a mistake she made."

Taako was on his feet now, both hands braced flat against the table.

"Uh huh, yeah, sure. So, to break it allllllllll down for a second here. You're saying that  **my**  twin sister didn't trust me enough to let me in on her plan to steal technology from Necron because she was 'protecting' me, but she was perfectly fine trusting some pasty nerd that she never even  **mentioned** to me?"

Barry shook his head. "It was never about trust. If you knew what we were planning, it would make you complicit, maybe even a threat."

Taako was about as interested in hearing Barry's excuses as he was at the prospect of stabbing himself in the eye. He pointed a finger across the table, square in the centre of Barry's chest.

"Let me make this crystal. fucking. clear. It's making a whole lot more sense to me right now that my whole life up to this point has been one big stinking lie, and that I've been a robot this entire time. At least then Lup didn't abandon me!"

Umbra dug her claws into the table. She wanted to scream back at him, try to explain herself, fight with him until they were both burned out and ready to make up. Like they used to.

But she couldn't. That wasn't her place anymore.

"Taako, Please, think about this," Barry insisted. "You have to know your memories are real, that you're-"

"Do I?" Taako asked, cutting Barry off. "Come to think of it, I don't actually know that much about bionics."

Taako turned to Kravitz, who had been watching the drama unfold with a level of chagrin on his face you would expect for an outsider caught in the middle of a family argument.

"Hey, Reaper-man, do bionics have to eat?"

Kravitz hesitated, not sure if he wanted to be dragged into this.

"It… It, um, depends on the model."

"See?" Taako crowed, apparently more pleased at the fact he was winning than concerned about the implications.

Kravitz gently pulled on Taako's arm until he dropped back down into his chair. Kravitz met Taako's eyes, distracting him from the objects of his frustration.

"To answer your question. I won't take you in until I've had confirmation. One way or another."

Taako swallowed and nodded. "Fine. Let's get it over with."

Kravitz rose and Taako followed his lead.

"Shall we retire to your room? It's best if you're comfortable.

Taako shrugged. "Whatever works."

Umbra tensed up, but before she could say anything or chase after them, Barry grabbed her around the middle and pulled her back into his arms. She hissed and wriggled, but Barry just patted her head and hushed her.

Once they were gone, Barry let her go. Umbra scrabbled back onto the table and whirled to face him, her tail swishing back and forth rapidly.

"We can't leave him alone with Taako!" she snapped.

"It's his choice to make."

"but-"

"We have to hope Kravitz's test is good enough to tell a heavily augmented elf from a biotic.

"What if it's not!"

"Then we'll figure it out from there."

Barry tucked a few fingers under Umbra's chin and tilted her head up.

"You can't keep doing this," he whispered.

Umbra jerked away from him with a flash of her silver-blue wings.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

Barry ignored the questions and offered Umbra his forearm.

"Come with me. I want to show you something I've been working on."

Umbra pawed at the table top. The part of her that remembered what it was like to be Lup trusted Barry implicitly, but with fresh eyes and an increasingly dim impression of the choices her past-self had made, she was beginning to doubt everything.

"I promise it will be more interesting than pacing outside Taako's room," Barry added.

Umbra grit her pointed teeth and reluctantly crawled onto Barry's arm, wrapping her body around his forearm like a snake.

* * *

 

"Turn your head just a- Yes, like that."

Taako tensed up as Kravitz's fingers brushed over a spot behind his ears. The Reaper's fingers were strangely cold. Taako supposed he should have noticed that little quirk sooner, but in his defence, he had been at least 70% drunk when he'd last been in close quarters with Kravitz.

Kravitz tapped two fingers against Taako's neck, like a medical technician looking for a vain, then pressed them down firmly as he inserted the male end of a USB connector cable.

Taako was starting to feel like this must be an elaborate joke when he felt his skin give way and the connector firmly clicked into place.

Kravitz sat back, and Taako reached up to replace Kravitz's hand with his own.

The hard plastic of the USB cord melted into his skin. Taako could have sworn there wasn't any divots there, yet he could feel the device connecting to something inside him.

"You've never had anything connected to your ports before?" Kravitz guessed.

Taako shook his head.

"I get that a lot. Wireless communication is enough for most functionality. Unless you're installing custom firmware or need to prove something to an irritating Reaper."

Taako cracked at least a fifth of a grin and returned to staring up at the cracking plaster on the decorative ceiling moulding. The bluejeans ancestral abode had been built in an era when even the ceilings were expected to be pleasant to look at. A pattern vaguely inspired by vines and flowers wrapped around the room and met in the middle to embellish the spot where a decorative chandelier had once been connected, replaced by remotely controlled halogen lighting.

Taako was in his bed. Laying as still as possible to avoid the unpleasant squeaking from the springs in the mattress and the rusty iron bed frame.

Kravitz dragged a crumbling leather armchair over to the bedside, adopting the role of a Victorian-era doctor seeing to an invalid. Or at least that's how Taako was interpreting it.

Kravitz plugged the other end of the cable connected to Taako's neck into a handheld computer. It looked a lot like an oversized tablet, but Taako didn't recognise the make or model. The device had another cable hanging off it, and Kravitz took it and plugged it into the inside of his wrist.

"How long is this going to take?" Taako asked.

"However long you sleep for. Less than 8 hours, usually."

Taako bit the inside of his cheek. Sleeping through the test sounded a whole lot less stressful, but he wasn't exactly jazzed by the lack of control.

Kravitz tapped at the screen, there was no visual operating system installed, only a black input field and green text. 'LOADING…. SYSTEM READY. RUN?'

"Would you like to count from ten?"

"No."

Kravitz nodded and tapped the screen one last time.

He settled back in the armchair. The upholstery was so worn after a few centuries of service, that it practically moulded around his body.

Taako closed his eyes. Just like when he'd been put down for surgery, one moment he was there, the next he was gone.

* * *

 

The ballroom was decked to the height of grandeur. Floor to ceiling windows on the north wall looked out over the extensive palace gardens, and the still lake beyond reflected the star-filled night sky. Blue drapery hung from the marble balcony lining the other three walls, the golden tassels barely touching the perfectly polished wooden floor.

On a raised stage, beside the grand staircase that connected the balcony to the main floor, a 15-piece Orchestra played a song that was vaguely familiar in the way most timeless pieces of classical music are.

Taako glanced down at his wrists. Noting the black frills of his cuffs and the decorative golden stitching on the sleeves. He turned and caught a glance at himself in one of the mirrored panels that covered the wall under the balcony. His hair was braided into an updo that wrapped around his head like a crown and ended in a tight bun at the back of his head.

The gold and onyx belt around his hips matched the choker around his neck and on his feet, he was wearing a pair of fine leather boots, with a hint of a heal.

He looked gorgeous. He couldn't find a single thing to pick apart or that needed fixing.

A hand closed over Taako's shoulder, and he turned to see Kravitz standing over him. The Reaper didn't need much improvement to be fit for a formal event. His simple black cloak had taken on the distinct texture of feathery wings, and instead of a red tie, his collar was held by a large brooch with an equally massive inlaid ruby.

Taako smiled, it reached all the way to his eyes.

"You really buried the lead on this one, my dude. If you'd told me I'd get to go to a ball, I'd have taken you up on it sooner."

Even though he'd been the one to grasp Taako's shoulder, Kravitz wasn't looking at him. He was focused on the crowd of elegantly dressed men and woman dancing in colour-coordinated pairs.

"Oh? Uh… yes. It's quite lovely," Kravitz replied, shuffling closer to Taako as if he were a lifeboat on a sinking ship.

"Is something up?" Taako asked. It all seemed perfectly pleasant to him.

"I… I'm not sure. I've never been pulled in before. I wasn't aware that it was possible."

"Pulled in?"

"Normally, I watch from a bird's eye perspective. You aren't supposed to know I'm here."

Taako didn't love the sound of having his dreams spied on. So, he wasn't overly concerned about this little hiccup.

"Maybe you're here because I need a dance partner?" Taako suggested, taking Kravitz's hand.

Kravitz turned and held Taako's hands in both of his.

"Hold on, are you aware you're dreaming? Kravitz asked.

Taako shrugged. "If I wasn't before, buckaroo, I sure am now."

Kravitz took a deep breath and said, "Lucid dreaming would explain it…"

Kravitz looked so relieved that Taako decided against mentioning the fact that he'd never had a lucid dream before in his life.

"So, a dance then?" Kravitz asked. He moved one hand to Taako's lower back and laced their fingers together.

Taako took a sharp breath as Kravitz guided him out onto the floor.

"Wait, wait. I was just kidding, you don't-"

The couples already on the dancefloor parted seamlessly to allow space for the new arrivals.

Kravitz took a step to the left, easing them into a slow twirl inside the larger circle the dancers were gliding in.

"This is your dream, whatever you say, goes," Kravitz replied, "Although, a word of advice, since I usually don't get the chance to give one. Things will go smoother if you play along."

The light pressure of Kravitz's hand on Taako's back was firm enough to lead him through the steps, each landing in perfect time with the music.

Taako felt like the topper on a music box, floating through space as an invisible mechanism clicked away below the floor.

"I realised I shouldn't know how to ballroom dance," Taako murmured.

"Try not to think about it," Kravitz suggested before pulling Taako in close and adding "I'm going to twirl you now, ready?"

Taako nodded, and Kravitz lifted their twined hands. Taako took two steps out and two steps in, performing the full spin and landing back in Kravitz's waiting arms.

His feathery cloak wrapped around them both and they stilled. Caught mid-step as Taako finally realised that none of the other dancers had faces.

The space from hairline to chin was smudged, like someone had taken an eraser and rubbed their features out.

"Ah. You've noticed," Kravitz said.

Taako abandoned the chaste touches the dance demanded and wrapped his arms around Kravitz's waist. He wished he could disappear entirely under the Reaper's metaphorical wings.

After a moment of hesitation, Kravitz squeezed him back tightly.

"There are limits to your own imagination. You can't put detailed faces on people you've never met," Kravitz explained.

A firm tap on Taako's shoulder made him look up.

At first, he thought they'd somehow ended up near the mirrored walls and that he was looking at his own reflection, but then he noticed the red in her eyes and the firmer set of her shoulders.

They were dressed identically but in photonegative colours. White on black for him, black on white for her.

"Can I cut in?" Lup asked.

Kravitz nodded and took a step back. Taako almost made a grab for Kravitz. His heart was pounding so hard in his chest he thought he might crack a rib.

Lup laced their arms together.

"Coco, what's wrong?"

Taako blinked. One of the dancers on the other side of the room was laying face down on the pavement. His crumpled form hardly recognisable among the bags of garbage.

"I… I think there's a dead body over there."

Lup turned. A flash of lightning Illuminated the alleyway. It had been raining all day, and the twins were soaked to the bone. Forced by empty stomachs to go searching for food, even though it meant risking hypothermia.

"Oh, Jackpot!"

Lup flashed him a mischievous smile from under the hood of her stained off-purple sweatshirt. "Stay here, okay? I'll go check it out."

Lup unhooked their arms and darted over to the corpse. Even standing up, Lup was hardly taller than the trash cans. She kneeled and poked at the bloated corpse, then threw all her weight into turning him over.

Taako saw Lup pull a pocket knife from her torn jeans and he covered his eyes and hummed to himself, drowning out the noises.

Lup returned a moment later, clutching a flat black box with wires hanging out the side. Dark fluid was smeared over it and her hands. Taako knew what it was, but in the diminishing light, he could pretend it was oil or grease.

Lup was smiling from pointy ear to ear.

"What is it?" Taako asked.

"Power source. Looks like an Equinox model. Should be worth at least two hundred."

Taako gaped at her. That was more money than he'd ever seen in one place. They could eat a hot meal every night for two months if they stretched it.

"Really?"

"Yeah! Could have been five if I had the arm this was powering, but it's welded to his skeleton."

"What happened to him?"

"Jumped. His face was smashed in real good."

Taako gagged. Fortunately, his stomach was too empty to be sick.

"Even people in glass towers can be miserable. Especially lonely ones. Won't happen to us, we'll always have each other."

Something about that made Taako's chest hurt, but he couldn't remember why.

"What now?" he asked.

"There's a pawn shop that deals in grey market cybernetics around here."

Taako moved closer and playfully elbowed her in her side, while also steering well clear of the object in her hand. "Were you browsing around again?"

"A girl can dream…" Lup muttered back. "I think I'll do my eyes first, being able to see everything would come in handy."

Taako swallowed. He wanted to be supportive, but every time she brought that up all he could picture was her two beautiful blue eyes sitting on a metal tray with the bits still attached to the back.

As they skulked through the neon-lined streets the rain washed away the evidence from Lup's hands and the flat object.

They found the pawn shop. The narrow doorway was partially hidden behind the signage listing off all the things the shop would buy, (TVs, coins, implants, jewellery,) and there were no windows apart from the glass door.

"I'll be right back," Lup whispered, moving away from him.

Taako grabbed the hand that wasn't holding the black box.

"No, I'm coming too!"

"It'll look suspicious if we go together. They'll think we're part of a gang."

"Bullshit. You want me to stay behind. You never let me help when something's dangerous! You can't be the brave twin all the time."

"I'm serious Taako. It will look like we ganged up on a dude and killed him. They won't want to be caught up in a murder case."

Lup gently pried her wrist away from him.

"I'll only be gone a few minutes."

Taako watched her vanish into the florescent lit doorway, his feet felt like they were buried in concrete from the ankle up.

Time seemed to stretch on forever until suddenly, he heard two voices screaming. One high and frightened, one low and angry.

Lup appeared in the doorway, her back to Taako, clutching the box to her chest in both hands.

A human three times her height loomed over her. He snatched her wrist and yanked her arm out of its socket. Lup screamed, and the power source fell and smashed against the concrete stairs.

Lup grabbed his forearm, pulled herself up, and sunk her teeth into his wrist. The human shouted and threw her off.

Malnourished and small as she was, Lup's flailing body arched through the air and she landed in a heap with a dull thud.

"Lulu!"

Taako lunged for her and gathered her up in his arms. She was completely limp, and her head was hanging at a sickening angle.

Taako pressed his ear to her chest and held his breath. He couldn't hear a heartbeat or feel her breathing.

"No! No, you can't!"

Taako clung to Lup so tightly his arms ached. Tears streamed down his cheeks, and his whole body shook with choked sobs.

"Y-you, you promised!" Taako cried. "You just said! You just…"

"Squawk! Squaaaaaawk!"

Taako jolted, startled out of his grief.

A raven was standing in a puddle a foot away. Screeching at him and flapping its wings.

"Kra-Kravitz?"

Saying the name out loud brought Taako back to himself. None of this was real. He and Lup had survived childhood. They'd escaped all this. He was laying in a bed in Barry's ugly-ass house with Kravitz watching over him.

"I want to wake up now," Taako said firmly. Speaking directly to the raven.

It cocked its head to the side and made a soft chortling sound.

Bit by bit, Taako laid Lup down. Reminding himself over and over that it wasn't really her. Just his imagination torturing him. He brushed her hair back from her eyes and stood up.

"I remember now, I used to have this nightmare a lot."

The raven hopped over and chortled again, looking up at Taako with Its beady black eyes.

"It doesn't hurt as bad as it did when it was for real."

No matter how many times Taako acknowledged the dream around him, it kept on going. If he wanted it to be over, he'd have to do something to wake himself up.

Falling always seemed to work, but there wasn't anything around to jump off, so Taako crossed his arms over his chest and fell backwards.

He sunk down into a plush chair as the live studio audience roared with applause all around him. A chant sprung up somewhere in the wings and flowed over the whole crowd, his name on hundreds of lips.

The host held up their hands, trying to calm the crowd, but the masses would not be silenced.

With an airy wave of his hand, Taako indicated that he could handle this. Anika Winslow, the by-far most popular host of Latest Night Tonight, and commander-in-chief of the 7 pm timeslot, nodded to him and took their seat.

Taako rose and held his arms open wide for his adoring public. He gave them another sweeping bow and blew a bevvy of kisses out in all directions.

Out of the corner of his eye, Taako watched the preview monitor. He was wearing his full stage gear, including the black cut-off t-shirt that the producers had insisted he would need to forgo to meet broadcast restrictions.

Once he had given them a few moments more to bask in his presence, Taako pressed one finger to his lips, and a hush fell over the audience.

Anika sat with their legs crossed and hands folded neatly in their lap, a warm smile on their lips.

"Well hello, hello, hello, sugarplum. Welcome to my humble show. I do declare, I have been waiting simply ages to make your acquaintance."

Taako pressed a hand to his chest, taking his best shot at a coy but flattered smile.

In the face of such frivolity, Taako's had no choice but to double down with her. He took the offered handshake and bowed deeply.

"Oh darling, it can't have been half as long as I've been waiting to be on this show! Why, ever since I was this tall, I dreamed of being here on this stage with you!"

Taako gestured vaguely to his hip, and everyone politely ignored the fact that since he was an elf, Taako's childhood had been about twenty times longer than this show had been airing.

Taako found his seat and took a small sip from a mug full of cold water laid out for him. He was careful to keep the sponsor's logo pointed toward the camera.

"I'm absolutely humbled, I'm sure. But enough about me, precious, let's talk about you," Anika said resting both hands on their knees and leaning forward a bit.

"Cool, that's my favourite subject!" Taako replied with a grin, earning a laugh from the audience.

"Now, I haven't heard a story like yours in a good long while. Folk these days really feel like the ol', rags-to-riches isn't realistic. But here you are, a variable Cinderella."

Anika gestured toward Taako, and he inclined his head like a royal accepting a decree.

"So, here's my question. Did you always dream big? Or did success find you?" Anika asked.

Taako smiled his million-dollar smile at them. Like any good host, Anika was lobbing him a softball question to start.

"That's a great question, and honestly, it was a little of both. I talked about this a lot on my streaming show. You see, cooking for me started as a chore. Something everyone needed and would keep me around to do. But after a while, I started having fun with it. I'd try adding a little bit of this, or substituting that, learning as I went along. Then I showed what I knew to other people… and obviously, they were impressed, and then it dawned on me that I shouldn't keep this amazing skill for myself. Everyone needed to experience the Taako way of cooking, the Taako way of life, really."

Someone in the audience whooped in agreement.

"-And you know, that's kind of the vision statement of sizzle it up with Taako. You don't need specialised training or the best ingredients. Just a little creativity, and the confidence to trust your intuition and make a few mistakes."

Taako would have continued, but a sudden round of applause for that statement cut him off. Anika joined in, tapping their fingers against the palm of their hand.

"What a wonderful message to send. Is that why you started live streaming?"

"Of course! And, like, there was always a strong connection there. I encouraged viewers to follow along in their own kitchens, and we created something special-"

Anika jumped in then, cutting Taako off.

"-But even getting to that point wasn't easy, was it? You talk about how you grew up on the streets, without a stable home or even knowing if you would eat that night. What was the turning point where you were able to get back on your feet and gather the resources to start your show?"

Taako blinked at her. This hadn't been in the pre-show briefing. He glanced around for the producer, but the wings were empty, and the audience was starting to get restless from the sudden break in conversation.

"Um, well you see, that all comes back to my sister," Taako admitted. With nothing planned, he'd have to resort to telling the truth.

"She, uh, she always had an interest in robotics and cybernetics. At one point we joined up with this street show. I did the cooking, but she… there was another performer, he called himself 'the worlds most augmented man.' This was back before everyone had them… there was a scare involving augmentation addiction? Anyway, Lup worked with him, and he connected her to Necron, and when they realised how good she was, they had to have her. Necron offered Lup an indenture contract, thirty years minimum, fixed salary, but with an allowance for augmentation."

That last bit had been the tipping point for Lup. The opportunity to have her body line up with her soul, to finally be able to cross into something greater then what she had been born with. He remembered visiting her in the recovery room, even half delirious on painkillers she was glowing with positive energy.

Anika cut in on his swirling thoughts.

"Well, quite frankly, Taako. It sounds like you didn't really work your way up from the bottom, did you? You let someone else do the work while you rode her coattails."

Taako couldn't answer. His whole body was frozen. He'd turned to ice under the spotlights.

Anika rose, the skirt of their long red dress falling into perfect mermaid-tail shape around their hips and legs.

"It's such an awful shame that Lup perished in that fire. No wonder your life is falling apart. You've got no one left to take care of you."

Anika crossed over to Taako's chair and placed her clawed hands on his shoulders. She tightened her grip, the sharp points digging into his skin.

"It's funny that the only network to offer you a show was partnered with the company your sister worked at. One has to wonder if she was pulling strings behind the scenes."

Anika leaned in close. The studio audience stared at Taako, their eyes boring into him and leaving behind a sharp sting, like being eaten alive by hundreds of insects.

"Well, Taako, are you ready to admit you're a fraud? That all you can do is smile and make a fool of yourself while everyone else picks up your mess?"

Anika was long gone. Taako had no idea what the creature lurking behind him was, but he sensed sharp teeth hovering behind his neck.

"This is why Lup didn't trust you. She knew how useless you truly are, and now the whole world knows it too."

Taako could feel their eyes on him, not just those sitting in the audience but all the viewers at home.

Billions of featureless Faces. Each silently judging him.

' _There's limits to your own imagination. You can't put detailed faces on people you've never met.'_

Taako took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes. Those words seemed to pop into his head. It took a second to remember who had said it to him.

Kravitz.

This was a dream.

"Motherfucker!"

Taako screamed his protest up at the stage lights. The single word banishing the monster over his shoulder and the spectres in the crowd.

Taako punched the arm of his seat. So much for being a lucid dreamer. So far, he was 2/1 on being screwed over by his own imagination.

He jumped up and started pacing across the stage. Furious at everything and everyone, including himself.

"Hey, hey, Kravy. Hey thug. Is this part of the test?! Am I supposed to be having a revelation, or some shit? Cuz I've got to tell you, all I'm learning so far is that I'm a useless idiot!"

No response.

Taako took a deep breath, threading his fingers into his hair and trying not to pull it out by the roots.

He wished the ground would open and swallow him whole.

And then, it did.

* * *

 

Umbra jumped off Barry's arm and landed softly on the laboratory table.

In front of her was a sizeable seed-shaped pod that took up about half Barry's workspace.

A light from inside shone out through the glass door, illuminating both the room and the interior of the pod.

"Barry, you didn't."

Umbra slowly crept towards the pod until she was perched on the table edge.

"I did," Barry admitted, with a small shrug.

"Where did you get the parts?"

"Everywhere. I scavenged a bit, made a few, got some off the black market… the power drive is straight up stolen. Keep that in mind, I guess?"

Umbra turned and stared up at him. Her small dragon body framed against the much larger one in the pod behind her.

"She looks…"

Umbra shook her head. She didn't need to say it out loud. Barry must have worked tirelessly, using what pictures he had and his own memory to get every detail right. From the freckles on her cheeks to her narrow toes.

Umbra felt an intense and painful longing building inside her, like a magnet straining to match with an opposing pole.

"No. I can't."

Umbra shut her eyes, blocking out the image but not her own thoughts. This felt wrong. It  **was** wrong. If she took over that body, it would be like nothing had happened. Didn't Barry understand how much she longed for things to go back to the way they were? How awful it felt to remember being happy and comfortable in your identity, only to be forced to begin again because you weren't really 'you' anymore?

"Nobody asked if you wanted this," Barry said quietly.

Umbra jolted out of the whirlpool of thoughts that was dragging her down.

"What?"

Barry pulled up a chair, so he was on the same eye level as Umbra. He rested both elbows on the table and his chin on his forearms.

"I think at the time it made sense because Lup came up with the plan. It felt like her sacrifice to make… but the more I thought about it after the fact. Well, it's not fair."

Umbra found herself drifting to him. She rested a paw on his elbow and her head in the crook of his arm.

"-I know what this seems like, and maybe when I started building her, that's what I was trying to do. But now I've met you, I can see that you're different and that you need to be different. You deserve a chance to exist on your own terms. It's the least anyone deserves."

Umbra blinked rapidly. Her dragon body couldn't cry, but the urge to do so was overwhelming.

"Barry…" she whispered. Umbra lifted her head and gazed up at him, but Barry was caught up in his explanation and didn't hear her.

"We can change the cosmetic parts, hair colour, eye colour... skin colour might be harder, but if I had the right paint… Anything you need to do to make it feel right again."

"Barry!" Umbra said, slightly louder, and punctuating it with a slap on the arm from her tail.

Barry finally shut up and looked at her. Umbra gathered herself up and pressed her tiny paw flat against his cheek.

"Thank you, so much. I can easily say this is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me."

Barry's breath hitched, and his cheeks flushed bright pink. "O-oh, Y-You're welcome."

He stood up, trying to bluster into the next task to hide his embarrassment.

He went over to the pod and snapped down a panel on the side to reveal a keyboard, a screen, and a group of ports and cables. He pressed a few buttons to wake it up, then stepped aside.

"Here, these are her wireless codes."

Umbra nodded and flew over. The screen was displaying a list of system information. Installed RAM, processor model, system type, and most importantly, the device ID and security passcodes. Umbra memorised both in the blink of an eye and returned to the table.

She took a moment to arrange her robot body into a neutral position, legs tucked tightly against her back, wings folded, neck and tail curling toward her belly, and her eyes closed.

There was a pause. No longer than five minutes, though for Barry, it felt like an eternity. Then the status light all along the side of the holding pod started blinking rapidly. The screen flashed up a loading bar with the word 'connecting' underneath.

At about fifty per cent the pod started to shift backwards, moving from upright to a 45-degree angle. Barry took up position near the control panel, keeping a careful eye as more progress messages popped up.

 **Battery charge** 100%

 **Running Diagnoses** [SUCCESSFUL]

 **Initializing Drivers** [SUCCESSFUL]

 **Booting** [SUCCESSFUL]

 **Connection** [SUCCESSFUL]

 **Door unlock** [IN PROGRESS]

**Chamber door release. Stand back.**

A loud hiss filled the lab as air pressure was equalised and the hermetic seal released.

The door of the pod lifted, and the interior lighting flickered out. The elf laying flat on the white padding groaned and slowly opened her eyes. She glanced around blearily as if she had just woken up from a very long nap.

Barry offered her his hand, helping her rise from the slanted tube and find her footing. Her skin was warm and soft, made from layers of specially treated polyethene and silicon woven together to mimic living tissue.

She was slow to start moving, but after the disorientation passed, muscle memory took over, and it all fell back into place.

"Umbra? How are you feeling?" Barry asked.

She looked up from inspecting her hands. Umbra? Who the hell was… Oh, right.

"So, this is me now…" Umbra murmured.

She looked down at herself, moving her hands along with her eyes as she poured over every detail. The swell of her breasts, the curve of her hips, the rolling valley of her tummy and her muscular thighs and calves. Umbra tried to get a look at her back as well, but she only succeeded in spinning around a few times while looking over her shoulder.

Barry watched her the whole time. He was glad she was getting to explore, but he also wished he had thought to dress her new body before giving it over. It hadn't bothered him when it had only been a shell, but now she was up and moving and he could feel her presence there with him…

"Man, I forgot how good I look," Umbra said. Lifting both arms over her head and holding the opposite elbow as she stretched out.

"Mmhum…" Barry agreed, not trusting himself to speak.

Umbra turned to him. They were the same size now. Well, she was about five inches shorter, always had been, but the scale lined up now. His shoulders looked less like a place to perch and more like somewhere to rest her head, and his arms less like a convenient thing to scurry up then something she wanted around her waist.

That soft tugging feeling Umbra had felt earlier came back, but this time pulling her towards Barry instead.

It happened too fast. The movement felt as automatic as putting one foot in front of the other. she reached for him, fingers tangling into his hair as she pulled him down into a lip- bruising kiss.

Halfway through, Umbra caught up to what she was doing. She pulled back far enough to mutter "Shit," before she wrapped her arms entirely around Barry's shoulders. His hand found her hips, settling into their usual spot.

Now that she was already making this mistake, Umbra tried to bury herself in it. She dragged out the moment for as long as she could. She had no idea what Barry was feeling, but he didn't seem to be able to end the kiss either.

They hardly moved their lips the whole time. They stayed pressed firmly together like any sudden movement would break the spell.

A warm sensation finally forced Umbra to come back to herself. She dropped back on her heels and her hand moved between her legs. She was wet there, which wouldn't have been unusual unless she happened to be an AI inhabiting an artificial body.

Barry's eyes went wide. "I-I'm sorry. That came with the frame, and I didn't know if I should keep it..."

Umbra licked her lips. She had saliva, so she shouldn't have been that surprised other fluids were there too.

She could do it. Right here, right now. On the table or even the floor. Melt his body into hers and hold him there. It would be the first time she ever took anything for herself, did something because she wanted and not because some ghost from the past had planned it.

Maybe Barry saw the longing in her eyes, or perhaps he was still embarrassed about including parts usually reserved for sex robots, but that was when he took a huge step back and put a full foot of space between them.

"You should check your systems. It'll be faster than explaining everything I did," Barry suggested.

Umbra nodded and closed her eyes. She ran a quick diagnostic, starting with the essential parts than working her way to the auxiliary systems.

There was a lot of stuff, most of it was compatibility related, but there was also protocols for temporarily overclocking her components, doubling reaction time or giving her a boost in strength or speed.

Umbra slowed down her scanning once she reached the systems tagged as 'Weaponry'.

"Holy crap,"

Umbra held her arms out, wrists facing up. Two sections of her skin popped open like access panels to reveal a pair of nozzles. A moment later, the pilot lights clicked on. Two bright blue flames that could spark a ranging inferno once she turned on the gas.

"I have flamethrowers in my hands?!" Umbra exclaimed, all other concerns forgotten.

Barry swallowed. "Sorry. It's not subtle. I was working with limited materials."

Umbra grabbed him by the shoulders.

"You jury-rigged a sexbot with flamethrowers, all for me?"

"Y-yes?" Barry replied, hoping that the huge smile on her face meant she was taking that as a good thing.

Umbra laughed and shook her head, she let go of Barry and began running her fingers through her hair.

"I need to get dressed."

Barry nodded. He wasn't going to say anything, but he would feel a lot better if she did.

Umbra held a handful of her hair in front of her eyes. Barry had gotten the blond precisely right… but...

"Is it safe to go out and get a few things? We're right next to a mall," Umbra asked.

"It should be. I'm legally dead, and no one knows you exist."

Umbra bit her bottom lip. (she could do that now, it felt amazing.) Two hours in a mall and she could reinvent herself.

It wouldn't be the first time.

* * *

 

"Is this seat taken?"

Taako lifted his head from his knees, frozen tears clung to the corner of his eyes and his lashes. He brushed the crystals away with his wrist and turned to see Kravitz standing in a snow drift a foot or so away.

The swirling ethereal glow of the Arora lit the pitch-black sky that stretched out for miles around them, unbroken by the flat landscape below.

A single path of footsteps led off into the distance and ended at the depression in the snow Taako had curled up in. He had been walking for a while, hoping he might cross paths with something besides more snow, before finally giving into the white desert.

"Sure, knock yourself out..." Taako murmured.

Kravitz sat down, taking the time to make a small pile to lean against. He dropped down onto his elbows and gazed up at the sky. He could see the stars now, tiny pinpricks of light hidden behind the yellow-green radiance. It flowed like a river from one edge of the horizon to the other, sometimes a hint of red and purple would flicker along the edges.

"This place is spectacular. You have a very powerful imagination," Kravitz said.

Taako had his face turned away from him. Fresh tears streamed freely down his cheeks. He had it about under control when Kravitz had appeared, but now that he was trying his hardest to staunch the flow, his efforts were rendered useless. Fortunately, Taako had taught himself how to cry silently, or he would have been a sobbing mess on top of it.

"Powerful enough that it knows exactly where to bury the knife," Taako muttered into his folded knees.

He sat up and stared at Kravitz, eyes growing wide with fear. "Hold on, is something worse going to happen now?!"

"P-pardon?" Kravitz asked.

Taako rubbed his cheeks with his hands again and then buried them in the snow, fingers compressing the loose powder into slush balls.

"Every time  **you** show up, it gets worse!" Taako snapped. "What more is there? Am I going to fall out of a plane? Have all my teeth fall out?"

"Taako, I swear I haven't entered your dream since we parted in the ballroom. Whatever you saw wasn't me."

Taako's anger flickered out almost as fast as it had come. He dropped the handfuls of snow and crossed his arms over his chest instead, hugging himself tightly.

"I want to wake up."

"I know," Kravitz replied, a genuine note of sympathetic pain in his voice. "but I have to let you do that on your own. You're in a deep sleep right now, and coming back all at once… It won't be dangerous exactly, but it's not recommended."

Taako sighed. "I thought that's what you'd say."

"I can stay with you," Kravitz offered. "for now, at least. I still don't know how this is happening, but it seems to be stable enough for the moment."

"It's a free dreamscape…" Taako said with a shrug.

Kravitz gathered up a handful of the snow. He could see each individual flake, but not clearly enough to make out their exact shape.

"Would you like to know if you passed the test?" Kravitz asked.

Taako sighed and squeezed his eyes shut. "I'm not a biotic."

"You aren't," Kravitz agreed.

"Here's what I want to know, how did any of that bull-crap prove it to you?"

"It's complicated," Kravitz admitted, rather sheepishly. "Perhaps we could start somewhere else and work our way back to that question?"

"Sure, whatever."

Kravitz didn't seem at all bothered by Taako's apparent indifference and continued.

"I'm a Reaper. I hunt artificial intelligence and the platforms they inhabit. Care to hazard why?"

"Money. Obviously. Fat cats hate having their expensive technology running away."

Kravitz shook his head. "No. not quite. The financial aspects do help keep our organisation afloat, but that's not the main purpose."

Kravitz sat up and crossed his legs. At this point, the snow should have started soaking through his clothing, but then it wasn't really snow, Just Taako's impression of snow.

"Do you remember the robotic pets that were quite the craze a few years ago? Your Umbra is one of them, or, I suppose she pretends to be one of them."

"Yeah, sure…" Taako said with a shrug. At one point he remembered wanting one, but Lup had talked him out of it, he couldn't remember why.

"I bring it up because it demonstrates the disconnect between expectations the actual state of artificial intelligence development. The pets were advertised as having cutting-edge AI, but when the product shipped, the results weren't much better than toys. They were able to take basic commands but only useful as expensive accessories.

Most insiders knew that the field of artificial intelligence was stagnating, and the longer things went without developments, the more pressure mounted to find a shortcut. Eventually, desperation led to the creation of a machine called the Void Engine.

The engine takes a… picture, so to speak, of a living brain and then translates it into code. It's quite impressive, in a truly horrifying way. One press of a button and a new AI is born. Fully formed, as capable of feeling and thinking as the person they used to be.

But there's a hidden flaw in the engine's output. Occasionally an AI will suffer an incurable glitch, and their personality will begin to fracture. All that's left afterwards is a functional psychopath at best or a bloodthirsty monster at worst. AI and biotics are only used by plutocrats and dictators because sending them to market would cause massive devastation.

The Reapers can't stop biotics being made, but we can stalk the people who use them and protect the public from the collateral damage… and, quite honestly, put them out of their misery."

Taako had his head in his right hand and was staring off into the horizon. He'd stopped crying somewhere in the middle of Kravitz's explanation.

"That's  **great**  and all, but what does that have to do with me, or why you put me through hell?"

Kravitz flinched and pursed his lips. "That… It wasn't meant to be hell. I was testing you for empathy. All I needed was to witness a situation where you put yourself in another's shoes or had your mind fill the role of another person. As soon as you were able to fully conceptualise your sister's presence, I had my answer. Everything after that was just your imagination testing out scenarios."

Taako dropped his hand and slowly pulled himself to his feet, shaking off the fresh snow that had gathered on his shoulders and the brim of his hat.

"If that was all you needed, then why didn't you give me a questionnaire? Hook me up to a lie detector and ask if I would kick a puppy or something. Do you have any idea how long I've been stranded out here, all on my own, in this fucking, endless, wasteland?!"

Taako's volume increased with every sentence, ending when he threw his arms wide towards the void of frozen earth around them.

"No, I don't…" Kravitz hedged.

"Neither do I! Time is meaningless here!"

Taako took a few deep breaths and turned his back on Kravitz. He started walking away, but it was slow going thanks to the ankle-deep snow. Kravitz watched him go, chin resting on his knees.

Taako got about another ten meters before it sunk in that he had nowhere to go. The horizon never got any closer, and there were no features in the landscape to prove he was making any progress besides Kravitz behind him and his own footprints.

Taako closed his eyes and slumped down, leaving an imprint where his body compacted the snow. Kravitz let him sulk for a moment or two, then came over.

Taako was laying face down in the snow in a way that would have been vastly uncomfortable if was more than a figment of his imagination.

"Taako, I'd like you to know… I saw a lot of you tonight. A lot more than I usually see, and… well, I don't think you give yourself enough credit. You've been through a lot recently, and there are still things that don't make sense about what's going on, even to an outsider like me. You shouldn't pronounce judgment on yourself without the facts. You aren't like any other being I've crossed paths with. I've seen you do things that stretch the limits of possibility. You are going to need to be strong to make it through whatever happens next, but based on what I've seen tonight, I know you can handle it."

A disbelieving snort came from the lump of snow Taako had buried his head in. He pushed himself up, snow still clinging to his eyelashes and bangs. Kravitz dusted some off Taako's shoulder, smiling gently.

"Nothing they can do to you out there is worse then what you're doing to yourself."

Taako slunk back down into the snow, pulling his hat down to hide the slowly growing blush on his cheeks.

"I'm too tired for this."

Kravitz nodded. "Try to sleep. If you fall asleep here, it should wake you up."

Taako curled up into a tight ball and closed his eyes.

"There's no place like home..." he murmured sarcastically.

Kravitz hushed him and settled down to guard over Taako's body.

* * *

 

Taako took the stairs one at a time. He wished Kravitz had been able to stay, but he'd needed to check in with the Raven Queen as soon as possible. He hadn't been able to promise them help, but he'd strongly implied that the Raven Queen would want to be involved with whatever happened next.

By the sound of it, all the other occupants of the house had gathered in the dining room, so Taako headed their first.

He pushed open the door and stepped inside. The quiet buzz of chatter dropped off as everyone turned to stare at him. Taako scanned their faces, trying to figure out why everyone was looking at him like he was a ghost out for bloody revenge.

Magnus was sitting on one end, and Merle was beside him, they seemed concerned, waiting for a reaction. Barry sat at the head of the table, white as a sheet and holding his breath, then beside him…

Taako's heart skipped a beat, but he didn't let it show. Some part of him had already put everything together. Kravitz's explanation on where exactly AI came from had only driven home the point.

Her hair was dyed silver-blue, and she'd gotten a sharp undercut (one half of her hair was shaved to the root while the rest flowed down over her shoulder), but her face and features were unmistakable.

As Umbra stood and came over to him, Taako noticed another difference. She had a tattoo that covered most of her right arm, a dragon with its long body wrapped over and over around her, it's head etched on her shoulder.

"Morning, Taako. Kravitz stopped by on his way out, and he said Lup refused his request for more time."

Taako stood silently. His teeth tightly clenched together. Umbra blinked at him, refusing to let him unnerve her. "We have three days left before this whole city starts turning itself upside down looking for you. So that's how long I have to teach you how to use your augmentations."

"I knew the whole time," Taako said.

Umbra nodded. "I should have guessed you would. Listen, bud, you can hate me all you want. But you need to know how to protect yourself. I thought I could do it for you, but I didn't think through what that would actually mean."

Taako bit down on the inside of his cheek. It seems as if he wasn't the only one who had been re-thinking their relationship.

"Fine, but as soon as I can control myself, I want you out of my head."

Barry gasped, nearly kicking his chair over as he jumped to his feet. Umbra shot him a glare, and he snapped his mouth shut.

"If that's what you want."

"It is."

Umbra reached out and took his hand. Taako wanted to snatch it away until he felt the warmth of her skin and how her fingers perfectly fit between his.

"Let's get you something to eat."


End file.
